However there’s something that a TV match just can’t give you, and that is atmosphere. It’s the “I was there” feeling Chris talks about in his article, the cheers of the crowd, the moment where every person around goes completely berserk when your team scores a goal, seeing your football heroes with the naked eye. Those are emotions that are incomparable to watching the game at home (or even in a sports bar).

I haven’t been to many live football matches in my life, but the few include some of the 2007 U21 Youth World Cup games in Canada, some 2003 Confederations Cup games in France (Brazil 0-1 Cameroon and France 3-2 Turkey), the 2003 Coppa Italia final return leg at San Siro (Milan 2-2 Roma) and above all, the 2003 UEFA Champions League semi-final in Turin (Juventus 3-1 Real Madrid).

The latter game was, by far, my most exciting soccer-related experience ever. I was sitting almost exactly in front of the corner-kick flag (although many stairs up), so I got a pretty good panoramic view of the entire field. I wasn’t too lucky in the sense that most of the action took place on the other end (Trezeguet, Del Piero, and Zidane’s goals, and Buffon’s PK save on Figo), but when Pavel Nedved scored on my end it was an experience I can’t even begin to describe. It was simply… fantastic! 20,000 Bianconeri fans screaming at the top of their lungs, Juventus crushing the great Real Madrid. Just absolutely priceless, and to be there living those moments inside the stadium, where all the action took place, was just incredible!

From Chris’s report though, it seems as he was sitting directly behind the net on one end. I’m guessing that so close to the field, it’d be really hard to see what’s going on on the opposite end. My personal taste is that if you go to see a live match, you should at least sit somewhere where you can tell what’s going on on the field. The entire field that is.

For me, being part of a crowd is much more empowering than being in front of my TV – there are hardly any sports pubs in Can’da.

I agree with Chris that the game seems slower, but you can focus on other things that you would not see on the TV screen. Example: do you know that some goalkeepers stand quite a bit outside their area when their team has possesion deep in the opposition half?

I would much rather go to a live match than watch it on television.

If someone said, “Hey, do you want every Arsenal match live in HD with any angle and stats in your control or a season ticket for the Emirates?”, i’d defintly say “Season ticket mate!!”.