Welcome back! We\u2019re now on to Part 3 of what will likely be four pieces detailing my journey to and through the Sydney Super Cup, talking through what the tournament and trip was like from a fan perspective\u2026 but also from having access a fan might not usually have. Part travel blog, part human-interest piece, part fan boy experience; what did it felt like as a fan walking into the press box and seeing Spurs play for the first time? And what was it like being a Tottenham Hotspur fan in Sydney?<\/p>\n
Check out Part 1<\/a> and Part 2<\/a> if you haven\u2019t already.<\/p>\n Following the Sydney friendly the next few days were uneventful as an international break meant a pause in the clashes between Worth It vs. Not Worth It. I spent some time with family and friends; I got out and about and enjoyed the city and did some shopping, both for myself and for my family who hadn\u2019t made the trip. I wasn\u2019t super interested in doing the touristy stuff; I\u2019d visited Sydney (almost) 20 years ago and had done all that then. I just enjoyed my freedom\u2026 and I worked. I got into a morning routine where I would get up, shower, wander a mile or so down the road to a local cafe, have a coffee and morning bun, check the news, and then wander back to the apartment and do some writing. It was nice.<\/p>\n I would continually think about Wednesday night as well. Like Harry Kane, I was buzzing. Everywhere I went, there were reminders\u2026 like the light rail I took as part of a trip into the city, taking me past Allianz and the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) where I\u2019d had my first Spurs experience.<\/p>\n And everywhere I went, there were Tottenham Hotspur fans.<\/p>\n I heard about the crazy Chelsea preseason fixture vs. Western Sydney Wanderers; I didn\u2019t manage to watch it. Still, I didn\u2019t see many Chelsea kits about the city ahead of the upcoming match against Spurs. Maybe they were embarrassed by the 6-4 scoreline (where they were rescued by a late Joao Pedro hat-trick).<\/p>\n I\u2019d just done some shopping in the city, and I decided to walk up to the Botanic Gardens and enjoy a bit of nature. I walked round a corner a noticed a group of Spurs fans, maybe ten years younger than me. This was technically a work trip; I thought I\u2019d do some work and decided to battle past my social anxiety and interview them.<\/p>\n I introduced myself, and told them I wrote for a reasonably well-known Spurs website, and asked if I could ask them some questions. I guess I didn\u2019t wait for their permission, then. I hadn\u2019t planned anything; I had no questions prepared. But I thought being in Sydney and seeing the fan response it would be interesting to hear the stories of (potential) Sydney natives, and how they came to be Spurs fans.<\/p>\n They were indeed Sydney natives, except for one who had moved from England several years prior. They were all wearing kit: one was wearing the new 26\/27 away kit; one was wearing last season\u2019s yellow third kit; and another was wearing from memory what was the 1994 home kit, with the Holsten sponsor logo on the front. Respect.<\/p>\n I asked them what drew them to Spurs. For a couple, it was family connections; for another, it was that night against Liverpool in the Champions League final. You read that correctly. He was surrounded by Liverpool fans, and decided he had to be the lone Spurs fan\u2026 and he\u2019s been stuck ever since. If that night didn\u2019t drive him away nothing will.<\/p>\n This preseason trip was the first Spurs experience for a couple of them; for the UK native, he\u2019d seen them before he shifted down under. Only a couple went to Wednesday\u2019s friendly against Sydney FC, with the others saving their money for the Chelsea match (tickets were exorbitant); those that went enjoyed the night but were pretty unimpressed by the performance, throwing a little bit of a dampener on my enthusiasm – I\u2019m supposed to be the pessimistic one! They were right though when they mentioned the poor turnout, but were excited about a near sellout for the Chelsea match. They disagreed with my assessment, however, of the club fan ratio: their expectation was a much bigger Chelsea crowd for the London derby.<\/p>\n They noted as well the significant contingent of Sydney FC supporters, noting the boos ahead of Luca Williams-Barnett\u2019s penalty, as well as the cheers when Jamie Donley\u2019s penalty was saved, feeling that having a club like Spurs play Sydney was hugely significant for the A-League club. Spurs are massive, after all. If you could only go to one though\u2026 that\u2019s the Chelsea match. There were a lot of nerves though going into Chelsea. Excitement was present in abundance, but so was apprehension, with not a lot of hope in a positive result given our record against The Blues.<\/p>\n The last question I asked them was about their experience this week as a Spurs fan – was there anything this week they\u2019d seen or experienced that had been really special, really stood out as a Spurs fan?<\/p>\n The immediate answer was Mathys Tel\u2019s free kick; they absolutely buried the lede though, as they followed that up with meeting Archie Gray:<\/p>\n We met Archie Gray, and he was lovely; he was so nice.<\/p>\n I hope he sees this!\u2019<\/p>\n There you go Archie. What a lad.<\/p>\n I did say I thought the players probably didn\u2019t read our site; nobody reads the articles. But Archie, if you do, you have my absolute respect. Reach out to us – we\u2019ll have a chat.<\/p>\n Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain Archie Gray Cartilage Free Captain – don\u2019t mind me, just trying to make the various algorithms target him. I hope I haven\u2019t cursed his knees.<\/p>\n Eventually I asked them why they were hanging about on the side of the road. It turns out I had wandered past the side of the team hotel, and they were expecting a couple of the players who had headed away not long ago to come past and chat to fans. What are the chances???<\/p>\n Well. I stood back, and let the fans get in and get their autographs; I didn\u2019t want to crowd or make too much of a scene as a few of the players made their way back to the hotel. Richarlison, Destiny Udogie, and Antonin Kinsky were there, obviously; I also saw Luca Williams-Barnett, Lucas Bergvall, and Mateus Fernandes.<\/p>\n Fernandes headed straight inside, but I wasn\u2019t worried; in fact, I was grateful as he had no bandaging or moonboot, and no visible limp amongst reports of an injury. Phew. Richy clearly loved getting amongst the fans as well, and Destiny really stood out. He was much bigger in real life than I expected; not much shorter than me (the pic is misleading due to the angle) – I\u2019m 6\u20191\u201d – and built like an absolute tank. He was so engaged with the fans as well, really happy just to chat; so much so that their \u201chandler\u201d (I don\u2019t know the technical term) had to drag him away (they had to prep for an event that night).<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have time to really speak to the players, outside of a few pleasantries – I asked them how they\u2019d been finding the tour, how they were feeling about Chelsea, and received mostly the coached answers you\u2019d expect. A couple of the fans had a spare kit and asked the players if they would take it inside for James Maddison to sign. I think Destiny would have, but the club staff shook their heads.<\/p>\n I thought I was buzzing after the Sydney match; I\u2019m now on the moon. At the risk of getting all parasocial about this, I\u2019ve met some of my sporting heroes face to face.<\/p>\n That adrenaline spurs me (lol) to talk to more Spurs fan as I journey back to the apartment. A man slightly older than me wearing a Spurs kit and his young son board the bus. I notice him (I\u2019m not wearing a kit today) and then note a couple of older gentlemen further back in the bus as well. He sits in front of them and starts chatting; I shift over and awkwardly join the conversation too.<\/p>\n Again, the theme was family, and in fact, that was pretty consistent with most of the fans I talked to – following Spurs was about family. Apart from a handful of examples, they didn\u2019t pick the club out of a hat. They were born into it. One gentleman was English, had followed Spurs since the 60\u2019s, and reminisced on beating Chelsea back then to win the FA Cup; he now lived in Sydney. Another had come up from Melbourne; another fan had come from Newcastle. One of the fans I spoke to earlier had come down from Brisbane.<\/p>\n Spurs fans were coming from all over the country to experienc Spurs. I\u2019d come from New Zealand. We are massive.<\/p>\n I know I\u2019m biased, but if felt like there was something unique about our fans; something that set us apart. A passion, a commitment that just wasn\u2019t as present for other clubs in the city. It was special.<\/p>\n And I\u2019d just had one of the most special experiences of my life. Come on you Spurs.<\/p>\n Check back in tomorrow, where I\u2019ll finish with the Chelsea match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back! We\u2019re now on to Part 3 of what will likely be four pieces detailing my journey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[81526,7941,5475,247],"class_list":["post-67250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-long-form","tag-opinion","tag-rubbish","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}