‘Post’ Christmas Reminiscing - English Football, Goal Post Crossbars and Tim Cahill

PILA's guest blogger, Craig Kahlefeldt, shares his experience of an Arsenal game in England and Per Mertesacker hitting the goal post's crossbar.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of spending Christmas in England will know that the whole place is abuzz, everyone it seems is holding out with anticipation for the big day. Whether it’s because you get to wear the tackiest Christmas jumper and nobody cares because everyone wears one or because you get to throw down a few pints at the local before rushing home to the most amazing dinner of all dinners, I’m not quite sure but even the die-hard football fans are in a good mood at Christmas.

I was the fortunate guest of my English brother-in-law at an Arsenal English Premier League home game at the amazing Emirates Stadium against Newcastle. My other brother‐in‐law was there too and we’re both Chelsea supporters for the record so to be honest we were feeling a little nervous walking into enemy territory. We both made a concise effort to hide our Chelsea loyalty so it was quickly assumed we were part of the Arsenal faithful and seemed safe. Guys were walking passed tipping their hat and we even got a quick nod of the head from one guy with a “you alright, let’s go Arsenal”.

As someone who has attended countless AFL matches involving old enemies Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond, I was almost speechless as to how happy the crowd was. Was it because there is only one little group of opposition supporters tucked away in a far corner or was it perhaps that the festive spirit was alive and well? Whatever the reason, I was impressed and totally fine with being an Arsenal fan for just one night!

8 minutes in however when Arsenal's giant German Per Mertesacker hit the football goal post's crossbar with a header from a corner cross, I forgot I was a happy Arsenal supporter and became one of those annoyingly passionate Aussies - just for a moment it took me straight back to Tim Cahill's World Cup ‘goal for the ages’ against The Netherlands when his left foot strike crashed into the net after smashing off the crossbar.

Thankfully I managed to gather myself and for the record it was a  long night in front of the goal posts for the visitors as Arsenal piled on  4 goals to Newcastle's 1. Call it Aussie pride but I can’t help but think our Timmy would’ve made it 5 –1!