Tonight Roma comes to London to meet Fulham F.C. at Craven Cottage.
Fulham is fresh off a 2-0 win against Hull on Monday.
Roma is fresh off a bitter loss against Milan at the San Siro. Here’s a link to some reactions, and a video of that refereeing here. That preview doesn’t mention the very interesting human interest angle: Roma’s John Arne Riise will be playing against his little brother (and Norway National team roommate) Bjorn Helge.
And there’s another crucial angle that all this preamble has been missing; the one which may prove to be the key match-up tonight:
David Symonds vs Ryan Millar.
David is a very close friend of mine from university. He moved to London 9 years ago, and is a card carrying Cottager.
When I moved to Rome and started this blog I fell in love with The Eternal City, and also la magica. I’ve moved since, but Roma is “l’unico grande amore de tanta e tanta gente” and I’ll always be one of them.
Tonight is the first time our respective clubs from our adoptive cities have squared off. It promises to be intense. It will be friendly sure – there will be pints snacks and laughs – but it will not be ‘a friendly’. The on-pitch action is at the Cottage, but the real tension is at Offside
The countdown is on. Forza Roma!
UPDATE: An incredibly exciting and intense match last night. Fulham almost walked away with all the points, until a young Roma defender stepped in the LAST FIVE SECONDS of the match and smashed a volley into the top of the Fulham net. It was an incredible finish. Dave and I aren’t speaking to each other anymore, but hopefully we’ll right our ship for the return leg on 5 November. For the wrap-up, as always it’s best to go to Roma @ The Offside.
Forza Roma!
