Blues From Afar - Newcastle Utd

Match days have taken on a somewhat surreal air since I moved here to California. Gone is the early morning tube ride to Euston or Marylebone followed by a long and often lonely train journey to Brum. Gone is the meeting of mates in the Anchor or the Old Fox for pre-match pints and pontification. Gone is the inevitable late departure from the chosen pub leading to a post kick-off arrival at St Andrews.

Happily, even from this distant corner of the States, I have found a way of keeping one of those traditions alive. No, I’m afraid 7am is too early for a pint, even for me, and I don’t need a train to get me from my bedroom to my laptop. I can, however, still miss kick-off with the best of them. Games start so early that I am loath to set my alarm clock for much before the first whistle is due. That habit coupled with the painfully slow internet connection I have, ensures that I am rarely tuned into a game any earlier than I would previously have arrived at one.

So on Saturday I listened intently from about ten minutes in, thinking from all I heard that Birmingham were comfortably on top and really just needed a goal to do justice to their dominance. As so often happens, however, it was the opposition who broke the deadlock, Gary Speed’s thirty yarder stunning the Blues fans, and Tom Ross, into uncharacteristic silence.

Fortunately, the value of squad players was emphasised once more as, with the ref reaching for his whistle for the last time, Stern John stole in at the far post to prod Cunningham’s hopeful free kick over the line. It was the most dramatic of equalisers, and one that earned a valuable point for Blues and sent the Newcastle players and staff into varying degrees of apoplexy.

The following day I decided to immerse myself in America’s biggest sporting occasion, Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl XXXVIII was taking place in Houston, Texas and being contested between the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots. By happy coincidence, the New England Patriots were the team I followed during my brief flirtation with the sport back in the 1980s, so I had a team to support.

Coverage began at 11am, and before too long I was completely sucked in. The presenters were actually entertaining. The scene outside the stadium was incredible with thousands of fans from both teams mingling in a huge ‘tailgate’ party in the car park. And then, with the 3.30pm kick off approaching, just as I was warming to the whole event and was beginning to think that football could learn a thing or two from its deformed American cousin, the pre-match entertainment began.

Billed as a tribute to the astronauts who lost their lives in last year’s space shuttle disaster, it began with Aerosmith being unintentionally hilarious. While they performed live, a video of the band playing at being spacemen was shown on the big screens. I swear, if I hadn’t known it was supposed to be a serious tribute, I would have congratulated them on an hilarious send-up. The best was yet to come, however, as the appalling Josh Groban wailed a vacuous ballad entitled, ‘You Raise Me Up’, while, and believe me, I’m not kidding here, a bloke in a space suit hopped about on a polystyrene model of the moon waving the stars and stripes. Absolutely priceless.

The game itself was a cracker. After a quiet opening quarter it exploded into life towards half-time. The score went from 0-0 to 14-10 to the Patriots in three manic minutes. Then, in the final quarter Carolina got in front, then New England went ahead, then Carolina brought the scores level, before a last gasp Patriots field goal finally settled things giving the Boston side victory 32-29. Although it will never take the place of real football, it was certainly an exciting spectacle, and the half time show, which featured Justin Timberlake revealing Janet Jackson’s right breast to a shocked and appalled nation, will live long in the memory.

Keep right on,

BiLiB.