I wanted to share with the memorable experience I had at the Chelsea v. Club America match held on July 14^th, 2007 at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California.  I attended the match with a good friend who is also a Chelsea supporter.  Although he had been to a prior Chelsea exhibition match, this was my first.  I didn’t know what to expect.

Knowing that Club America was a favourite of the local population we expected to be vastly outnumbered by their supporters.  Instead we were quite pleasantly surprised to have found an equal, if not greater, amount of Chelsea Blues kits in the stands.  The atmosphere was great.  It was one of the largest turnouts for a football match in the bay area, over 47,000. 

Having been fortunate enough to purchase our seats the moment they went on sale, we decided to sit on the sideline.  Our seats were literally in the first row, with the players right beneath us.  Ashley Cole sat in front of us with a pack of ice on his ankle in the first half, then Andrey Shevchenko joined us in the second.  We felt that we were in the thick of the action.  Neither of us had ever been so close to the pitch.  We were fortunate as we were surrounded by Chelsea fans.

The match was spectacular.  Although Club America scored a surprising quick goal, Chelsea dominated the match.  It seemed as though they controlled the ball for at least three quarters.  The constant pressure resulted in two quick late goals for Chelsea and they were victorious by a score of 2-1.  John Terry was awarded Man of the Match for an awesome 90 minutes and a brilliant header to give Chelsea the win. 

The seats allowed me a rare opportunity to take some great photos of the players warming up, doing a little training, and in action.  I’ve posted some of the shots I took here in the photo gallery , but most of them are up on Flickr (with more to come).  You can view them at www.flickr.com/gp/96961822@N00/82vhAq

I can’t wait for the next chance to see Chelsea live.