Prad, Amogh, Sumit, your humble scribe, and Julian representing SVG

Another year, another visit to Los Angeles for a pre-season match at the SoFi Arena. Do I sound blasé? Very well, you caught me out. I’ll do better 🙂 This is being posted about ten days later than I’d hoped. Thank you for your patience. Having waited this long for something you probably didn’t know was coming, I hope you enjoy what’s to follow…

Compared with last year’s trip (memorialized here), this was a marathon that lasted two days longer. The same feelings of cameraderie and care and excitement for the team and sharing that joy with other supporters was present. This time, though, it all seemed a bit more remote from the team itself; that might just be the nature of “second time around”, or it might be that the events generated less frisson and more of a slow burn. In any case on 27 July I got to see Arsenal defeat Manchester United 2-1 (though United “won” the penalty exhibition) at the SoFi arena with 60-some thousand friends, fellow Arsenal supporters, and “enemies”.

What follows is a somewhat linear photo-heavy travelogue, focusing more on my fellow SVGs and the times we had across three days and nights of Arsenal celebration (and, in some cases, a bit of drunkenness).

Thursday

After parking my car at SVG capo Sumit’s house, I took a Lyft to San Jose airport. I was running late, after working some in the morning, and had to text ahead to Bobby and his dad Bob, who were on the same flight, to tell them to hold it for me :). I was just about the last one on the plane, and ended up one row away from the Bobs. They were heading to other places on arrival at Los Angeles; I stayed at the same Culver City hotel as last year, and after getting settled my sister picked me up for a drive over to the first event, at COSM, an entertainment space in the SoFi stadium universe. She and I had a lovely couple hours drive and chat, waiting for the event to begin.

She left me, and I went into the event space and met up with Bob, Bobby, and Prad, and then Nikunj and Lakshya; I’d seen the latter three at our supporter’s bar (Jack’s in San Jose) but hadn’t really chatted with them before. I was pleased to get to know them better over the coming days.

We sat on the left side facing for the event, which included some awesome highlights of the 23-24 season and a podcast by Andrew Mangan, James McNicholas (Arsecast), and Clive Palmer and Elliot Smith (ArsenalVision). Their discussion was interesting, though I cannot remember much of it given the Manhattans I was drinking… COSM was incredible visually, similar in my imagination to the Sphere in Las Vegas, with fewer seats and less scope.

Theo and Gilberto were wandering in the crowd. We didn’t get to meet Theo, but Gilberto came down to where we were sitting and I introduced myself again after last year. He (no doubt) didn’t remember me, but his sweetness and kindness and joie de vivre was evident as he took a selfie (an ussie, actually) with our group; oddly the background turned to Brasilian rainforest just for this picture.

At some point as all this was going on the folks from Arsenal America (one of them, anyway, who shall remain unnamed) was tossing out flags for lucky recipients. I asked if there were more that she was going to throw, and she invited us to take a flag that had been flown at the Emirates last season that was spread out on the tables on the level below. I used it as a bedspread that night.

We all went outside to have some drinks on the terrace after the show inside. I met Justin, who’d just moved down from the Bay Area to be a rocket scientest in Los Angeles, and had a nice chat with Stuart Macfarlane; he told me some stories about Mø the Photographer, and Jack Wilshere at the 2014 FA Cup Parade I’ll be glad to share over drinks some time when we meet…if you’re buying.

Friday

After a late start on Friday I again got sandwich at Sorrento Market (see last year’s post), did some work, and then met with best friend from high school for the first time in 12 years. He picked me up, and we drove to the garment district downtown and the Bendix Building, to visit the Track 16 Gallery and see his art on exhibit (“Number 101”). Weirdly enough, my mother’s father used to work in the Bendix Building in the 50s and 60s! It has great views of downtown, and Track 16 had some excellent art that brought me right back to my days as a young man in Los Angeles. Best of all, I got to spend time catching up with my friend and assessing current events. What a lovely (re)connection; I look forward to future visits!

He dropped me on the border of Santa Monica and Venice, and I had to make my way via Uber to Hermosa Beach at rush hour. There was a gathering of Arsenal fans at the Underground Pub in Hermosa, which included a fundraising raffle for Mike Feinberg’s Gooners vs. Cancer charity. I ate some small dinner while drinking beer, and had a chat with Mike as the pub filled up with Arsenal fans. And then I won the first prize of the raffle! This led to more drinking, and we repaired to another bar after midnight that was still serving food and had a band. We were all tucked in by about 2 am.

Saturday

It was another late start, this one even a little groggy, but I was downstairs for breakfast at 8…and upstairs for a nap at 8:30. It was the day of the game, and there were pregame festivities at the LA Aleworks in Hawthorne (not terribly far from the stadium). I got there just about 11:30 am, and was one of the first SVGooners there…but met Rishi and his lovely partner whose name I just cannot remember. To mark our table we had our own scarf tree!

Eventually there were a couple hundred Arsenal fans gathered, including most of our SVG crowd, drinking and laughing, anticipating what was to come in a few hours.

Eventually we loaded into bus that would take us to the game. Last year I think the small size of our group, and the intensity of it being the first time at SoFi led the busride to be full of chants and laughter. This time there was some of that, but it was much more diffuse. That happens, I guess!

The bus dropped us very close to the stadium this time, rather than in the local neighborhood. However, we had no idea where it was going to pick us up! Nonetheless we went straight to the “tailgate” hosted by Arsenal America where there was (bloody expensive) food, swag, a crowd of Arsenal fans, and lots of sun.

Finally the stadium gates opened and I made my way down to the front of Section 102, right behind one goal. I met up with Sumit, Beau, and Amogh, with whom I was sitting in row 8; Prad and Julian joined us from their seats in the next section pregame. Walking the area between goal and stand were various players and people we all know, including Stuart Macfarlane, Theo, and Stubbsy (who would hold his own vocally against a United fan singing “Gooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll” in the pregame festivities…well in, Frank!). When Theo heard our “Theoooooo” chant and looked up at us, I held up his famous 2-0 to the Arsenal (from his stretcher on the way off the pitch against Tottenham), and he saw it and laughed. We saw Stuart going back and forth taking his usual pictures…so we yelled for him, and sang “We love you Stuart, oh yes we dooooo…”, and stood there miming he should take our picture. Well, you can see the result at the top of the article! Thanks, Stuart!

Arsenal’s staff had left flags on poles to be waved in our section; we grabbed one and carried it to our row, where we four were sat both in front of and behind *gasp* ManUre fans…and in a so-called Arsenal section! We did our best not to hit the sweet family in front of us, but if we blocked the view of the folks behind, well, too bad…sit in the United section next time.

We saw ESR trudging across the pitch and sang to him, but he wasn’t having it. He cut a really sad and lonely figure throughout the evening, and we knew he was gone (as we have since had confirmed last week on the .com). So, so sad.

The game was interesting, with United hitting us relatively easily on the break in the first half, but conceding a goal 15 minutes after they scored the opener. The rest of the half was played roughly at evens, and the second half we held our own strongly, winning out on Gabigol’s 82nd minute goal right in front of us…

After we clapped the team down the tunnel it was back to the bus, and on to Aleworks for Doner kebab/wraps with Belgian sauces, and finally back to my hotel for bed.

A group of SVG staying South of the airport went out to another bar, but having partied nearly every waking hour since turning 60 three days earlier, I was cooked :).

Sunday: As before, Exhausted and Replete

It was time to go home. One more stop at Sorrento after checking out of the hotel, this time sopressata with provelone and all the fixings (except mayo!). The Uber picked me up in front of the deli, and I met up at the LAX gate with the Dufflebags, Sumit, and Amogh. We were all just that bit worse for wear, comparing notes on what we’d heard about ESR, Molino, and the finalization of Calafiori’s signing. Then it was onto the plane (we all sat in adjacent rows), and home to San Jose and one last picture.

Overall it was an exhilerating and fun trip. What was a two day whirlwind last year (wherein we kept the intensity high all the way through) was less of a sprint this year, spanning just about four days of events, bars, sun, and excitement. As with last year the people we met were excellent, and meeting other Arsenal fans, and especially getting to know better the folks from my Silicon Valley Gooners supporter’s group, was a real treat. If Arsenal ever pre-season in your town, or come within a couple-three hundred miles of you, I highly recommend going…you’ll meet some great people, have a great time, and probably will get to see some lovely football. In any case, your Arsenal supporting will take on another dimension, and will bring you joy…