Written by Filip Urbancík Friday, 16 September 2011 14:53

GunnerTalk Blog

By Filip Urbancik

Last Thursday a friend of mine Peter gave me a chance to travel with him and his family to Dortmund. I said I might go but I didn´t have a ticket so I contacted Dan, who is a finicial boss and a founder member of our Supporters Club, and he made his best to book one extra ticket for me. I was so happy but I knew there are various dangers of such a long trip. It´s almost 500 miles from Prague and I never travelled with Peter before so I didn´t know about driving skills and time management.

We left Prague at 11 a.m. but we stucked in a traffic jam after few miles. We were told it would take few hours and we knew it´s very bad. I wanted to cry but I tried to think positively. When we left the Czech Republic we started to be quite positive about the whole thing but there was a terrible traffic in Germany too. Time was running so fast and I was like „We won´t make it, we just can´t do it!“ but Gods of Arsenal were with us and we arrived on time, let´s say few minutes before kick-off. I had enought time to buy a scarf just for 5 €, there´s AFC on one half and Borussia Dortmund on the other half. Dan passed me tickets through the gates of Signal Iduna Park (stadium of Borussia with more than 65 000 seats). I almost smacked few stewards down because they just couldn´t told me where my seat is. I was so angry but I found it just on time!

When I entered our sector I was staring with opened mouth. The stadium was full and crowd was amazing. All supporters made a very warm welcome for the players. The pitch looked so small, ½ size than it seems to be on TV. I don´t know why but many German clubs sing You´ll never walk alone. (few Gooners were moaning about hearing it once again). Then the anthem of Champions League and the players where coming out of the tunnel. It was my dream to see Robin van Persie and the pitch and he was there, proudly wearing captain´s armband.

I still couldn´t believe I am there in the stands watching Arsenal. I didn´t even care I couldn´t found any of my friends who were in another sector. There were a lot of fans from England, which was very nice. A lovely lady, who was standing next to me, told me I don´t have to care where I stand cause nobody cares about it on away matches. It felt strange to be alone there but I quickly calmed down after very stressful journey and I could fully get into it. Our away fans are amazing, we didn´t have much chances to shout louder than home fans but we surely made a great atmosphere. I had goosebumps when the crowd started to chant „Arsenal, Arsena, Arsenal“ for the first time, it was so great to sign all the chants with fellow Gooners not just infront of mirror or in my head. I always wanted to see Robin van Persie scoring a goal and guess what. It was 42nd minute and I saw RvP with the ball, everybody was full of expectation and when he scored we went off! Amazing mixture of madness and happiness, everybody was shouting and jumping and I almost lost my voice shouting „Robin van Persie, Robin van Persie!“. Home fans were quite and we starting to chant „Who are ya, who are ya?!“ with typical pointing of our hands to them.

During the half time I had to found my friends but I also wanted to buy a beer. (It cost 3.50 € + 1.50 € as a deposite for an amazing plastic cup in colour of Borussia with players on it, which I saved one of the cups as souvenir). Then I saw a wife of one of my friends Patrick (the guy you know from my article about our annual meeting), she told me that my friends are in the sector 60. I saw my old pals and I was given a very warm welcome. Everybody was asking where the hell we were for so long.

The second half was worse for our players because they were absolutely outplayed by opponents but we were enjoying every minute. When Germans were silent for more than few minutes we started to sign „Your support is shit,...“ chant and I don´t know if they understoond but they started to throw light object like empty packs of cigaretts on us from the stands above us. Our players weren´t so active and everybody knew well what will happen in next few minutes. I started to chant as much as I could just to cheer the players and fellow Gooners up. Absolutely tremendous support by our side, the players fully deserved it! Theo was substituted but he quickly started to show respect to us even though he propably felt bit sad. It was amazing to see Chamakh, Frimpong and Arshavin warming up. Frimpong and Chamakh were enjoying a good chat and our little Russian was watching score board where they were showing results from other matches. I would say he cared more about how Zenit play rather than the situation on the pitch.

I remember saying: „This is our time“ because I knew well we were about to concede a goal. It was 1-1, Germans think how great they are but we were chanting even stronger, I could feel how much we are proud of our club. There was everything you would expect from away fans: passion, loyalty, happiness and good vibes. It could be much worse without Szczesny who saved us once again. I didn´t care much about the score, I cared more about our support which was amazing for whole 90 mins. All the players were showing their respect to us but Robin show his extra class by giving his shirt to the crowd. I´ll never forget about the moment when I started the chant Robin van Persie and so many people followed.

We made some pictures and we were watching highlights from other matches. We left the stadium and on our way to car we were talking about the match and atmosphere. The journey home was better, maybe because I was sleeping and I didn´t have to be stressed anymore. The funny thing is we travelled there for more than 16 hours just to watch 90 mins of football but it was worth it.

To be honest I didn´t expect so much from my first match in the stands. It could easily be one of my worse day ever if we didn´t make it but my dream came true. I´ll never forget about the match and top class fans of AFC and Dortmund, I´ll never forget about the feeling I had when Robin scored and I´ll be just looking forward to the next match which I´d like to enjoy with my friends in London.

We are Arsenal and there is anything better than being a Gooner!

(Special thanks go to Petr and his family, Dan and Matygol)