Patience.org

It’s taken me a week to get round to posting about last week’s events in Hamburg. A few days to get over it and then a few more to get my act together. Anyway we had a great time, went out there with Mum, Dad (doubt they ever thought they’d see Fulham in a European final), Martin over from Australia and my mate Geoff, from slightly closer to home. We met up with Ken, Andy & Paul in town (more pics & videos), so it was quite a family affair. The wider Fulham family were in fine fettle before the match, meeting up in the ‘fan zone’ just off the Reeperbahn.

And then we headed to the ground, via our ‘own’ train, on which we met the Atletico fans, who we subjected to ‘are you Brentford in disguise?’ chants, which they took in good, if slightly bemused spirits.

We walked the last bit to the ground through a park, and under a tunnel, where we attempted to turn the Atletico’s Y Viva Espana chant into our own Y Viva El Fulham (the song from our 1975 FA Cup Final appearance, in case you didn’t know):

Geoff and I were optimistic of a the greatest victory in Fulham’s history before the match, but it wasn’t to be.

The boys held out for the whole match and then 26 minutes of the 30 minutes extra time, hoping to make it to a penalty shoot out at the end but we couldn’t quite make it. They looked tired after a long season that began at the end of July in Lithuania and as this map shows, it was quite a journey.

I made it to all the home games and the away legs at Juventus and of course the final. As you can probably tell it’s almost as much to do with the experience of going to these games as it is with the result. It would have been nice to win, as quite frankly we haven’t won much in 131 years.

But hopefully it won’t bee too long before we’re all going on a European tour once more.

The boy made his debut in competitive cricket last night, ostensibly playing for Barnes Cricket Club’s U10s. However as the opposition – Hampton Wick Royal – only had 7 players so we lent them 3, one of which was Miles.

They asked him if he wanted to open the batting, but he declined and went in at number 6. He scored a run off his first ball and could’ve had three more runs but wasn’t sure when to run and when to stay – I’d forgotten to drill him on that!

Then it was his (temporary) team’s turn to field. He got to bowl eventually and guess what, he got a wicket with his very first ball, which you can see here (the wicket is right at the start of the video, then the scorer asks for his name as he was a new bowler):

He then got another wicket in his second and final over, leaving him with some pretty good statistics for his first competitive game of cricket.Pretty good considering all the boys were at least a year older than him and some were as old as 11.

We got back home just in time for bed, reminding me that despite his auspicious debut, he is still just a little boy.

At his third at-bat for the Indians at Wormwood Scrubs today the boy took one in the back and got his second walk of the day. In his first at-bat he hit a line drive between first and second to get on base and was walked in the second one. Here he leaves the first pitch, as like many pitches in this age group, it’s high and/or wide; he’s got a good eye for an 8.5 year old.

Last week he had to leave the game after taking a line drive to the chest while playing first base, so he’s been in the wars a bit recently. Anyway, this is an example of how much of a step-up he’s taken from playing ‘coaches pitch’ last year with me and the coaches putting balls up for him to hit; now it’s 9 & 10 year olds doing their best to make sure he can’t hit it, even if they hit him instead!

This is what winning the UEFA Europa League semi-final meant to those of us in the Putney End at Craven Cottage on Thursday night.

Having beaten Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, Wolfsburg, Roma, Basel and now Hamburg (among others) over the course of 18 matches since late July last year and traveled some 18,000 miles in the process, we’ve made it to the final in Hamburg on May 12. And of course, we are going!