On you Seagulls! Premiere League #20, Everton

Here's a little outline of today's Saturday's perfect morning @ Nevada's:

1. Top of the league

2. Cristiano Ronaldo botched a penalty kick in a ManU loss

3. We were winning by a goal for a very short period of time

4.  A good ol' fashion cheering war broke out

5. Good friends were made

Yes, all of the aspects of a morning soccer bar were in  force. The righteous were rewarded, the pretty boy fell on his face, and the competitive camaraderie that can only be found amongst soccer fans was illustrated in it's finest form.

So, arising at a decent hour Devo, his mate and I made the uneventful trip to our home away from home where we settled into a nice bar spot about 3/4 of the way down. This zone is great because you are right at the frontier of Arsenal fans. If you can avoid that particularly drunk Chelsea fan (you know the one) then you are usually in for some great back and forth cheering. Strangely, it came from West Ham fans, who saved our bacon today.

You see, I had left my abode when ManU was up 1 nil. Arriving in low spirits to find they had lost to the Hammers turned a worrisome morning into exactly what we wanted. A chance for the young gunners to prove something. 

As always.

How did lowly West Ham get it together against Big Red? They played great defense and took their opportunities, but I'd rather focus on this:

Thanks for choking on your bigillion pound salary.

On a side note, it should be mentioned that in 2007, Google's most popular search for "I hate -----" was "I hate Ronaldo". It beat out "men" and "school". Upon hearing this news, Cristiano apparently fell to the ground and started crying while he grabbed his shins in "pain". No one is really sure why.

So now we had a reason to get rowdy. And we did. Devo is a bigger fan than any of us, and though he's usually very subdued, he has a fondness for going after England. What with the events surrounding Almunia's change in citizenship, Eduardo's Croatia goal and the general bitterness of English fans, there was plenty to work with. He provoked the West Hammers, who were celebrating their victory, and made life so much more fun.

Seriously, what is the deal with this "English players thing"? I mean, how can fans spend so much time ragging on Arsenal for not having brits when they are all too happy to root for Ronaldo, Drogba, Torres, and many more who are the saviors of their teams? Also why are Rooney, Owen, Lampard, Gerrard, Terry, blah, blah, blah so beloved if they give their all for the millions of pounds their clubs pay, but can't summon anything when England calls? Forget it. If you're gonna call Arsenal a "french team in London" fine. Then maybe we'll get to play in Euro 08.

But thats just my personal beef. For the most part it was great fun. We met a man named Byron, whose merciless taunts earned him Fan of the Match. A man named Jim came to play and helped Devo and I get the Red Army moving. We the fans, like our team, always start slow and end strong. Some of the Hammers were alot of fun too and I felt bad for the two Everton fans at the bar, caught in a sea of Arsenal, who cheered positively the whole time.

I hate losing, but with Arsenal, you have to be used to being down a goal almost once a game. What I can't deal with is being up by a goal. The sheer terror of losing your three points is something I was glad to avoid as Adebayor, in a miracle on onsides, got us to 3-1. In this state, I need only worry about an Everton goal which would force me to worry about the match. 4-1 means I only have to worry about worrying about being worried. This is best.

So I didn't have a coronary. We're back on top, and I had some beers.

Afterwards, there is always a chance to meet some good mates. Webber (I am about 63% sure of that name) and his gang from Brighton were on holiday and happened to stumble upon our little corner of the futbol world. They were very curious as to why there were so many Gunners in NYC. I have an answer, but I'll discuss that in another post. 

Here's a terrible pic.

I have just bought a better camera phone to prevent this sort of amateurism. 

They also brought the banner of their local team, the Seagulls, which now hangs somewhere in Nevada's. You have to love that our hangout is well enough known for Brits to leave England in order to put their banner in a soccer bar. 

Of course, there is nothing new about the English crossing the ocean to claim things with flags. 

On you Seagulls!