Archive for December 25, 2022
Only one day to go…
…until the return of Premier League football. It has been six weeks since they last kicked a ball in the English top-flight. But until I will watch real live football myself again, I fear it will take even more time.
I have been to London twice lately, but both trips took place during the World Cup. So I tried to watch games of lower tier clubs or women’s football in London this autumn, but that didn’t work out due to the timing of our flights, delays at the airport and adverse weather conditions.
Therefore this season I have only been to as little as two live games and no West Ham fixture so far. I had tickets for the Hammers’ home game against Bournemouth, but being hit by a Covid infection we had to cancel our trip and postponed the stay to late November. We would have witnessed a rare West Ham victory, one of only four so far this season.
I was at Rapid Wien’s Conference League qualifying game against Gdańsk in July (0:0, above). But as Rapid didn’t qualify for the group stage this season and I prefer to attend their European games on weekdays over their domestic league games on the weekend, the chances of watching them were limited. So it took until their last home game before the World Cup until I watched my second live game, a 1-0 win over LASK Linz.
Rapid’s fans made it quite clear what the think of the “Winter World Cup” in Qatar:
Of course I watched some football on the telly, mainly West Ham on Sky, the Women’s European Championship final, and finally the second half, extra time and penalty shootout of the World Cup in our hotel room in London Shoreditch.
Therefore the restart of the Premier League now is eagerly anticipated, as is the comeback of live football in Austria in February. I hope to make some more games then, and perhaps even be able to come back to England once or twice in spring to watch West Ham. Hope springs eternal…
EXTRA TIME 
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