On the morning of April 19th, the Luton players gathered at the training base as usual.
However, there would be no training today, because today was the day of the FA Cup semi-final, and they were about to go to London! To Wembley! And waiting for them in London was their opponent, the North London powerhouse, Arsenal!
"Hurry up, pack your things and get ready to get on the bus!!"
John Ashton was busy greeting the players to get on the bus. As the assistant coach, his job was still very complicated.
Before every away game, Gao Bo always habitually looked at the sky, hoping to understand the weather on the day of the match.
The clouds in the sky were not very thick, and the morning sun was warm and gentle, shining through the clouds.
I hope that when we return tomorrow, we can also see such a gorgeous morning sun.
Gao Bo suddenly thought a little poetically.
"It shouldn't rain today, right..." John said as he walked over after finishing his work.
"I actually hope that there will be a heavy rain during the game..." Gao Bo said.
Arsenal is a team with a more glamorous style of play in the Premier League. Their small-group cooperation in the front of the penalty area, as well as the overall ground advancement of short passes, are very distinctive.
Although the rainy weather will also affect Luton, it will definitely affect Arsenal more.
"It's useless, Gao, we're going to Wembley!" John Ashton looked very proud, he stretched out a finger: "This is Wembley!"
Rainy and windy weather cannot have any impact on Wembley at all. Of course, the current Wembley Stadium is the new Wembley that was newly completed two years ago, and it is completely different from the stadium where England lifted the World Cup trophy before. Its facilities are more modern and can host football matches in any weather conditions.
In such a modern stadium, the weather factor has become irrelevant.
Wembley Stadium is the home of England and the sacred place of English football. England once lifted the World Cup trophy in this stadium. However, since the old Wembley Stadium was built in the 1920s, entering the 21st century, it has become increasingly unable to meet the needs of modern football.
The FA eventually chose to demolish the old Wembley Stadium. Fans mostly hoped that the twin towers of Wembley could be preserved when the stadium was rebuilt, but in the end, they did not get their wish. On May 20, 2000, the old Wembley hosted its last FA Cup final, with Chelsea and Aston Villa facing each other. Chelsea's Roberto Di Matteo scored the only goal of the game. On October 7, 2000, the last game of the old Wembley was played between Germany and England. Germany's Hamann scored the winning goal and also became the last player to score at Wembley. The loss in this game also directly led to the dismissal of England coach Kevin Keegan. After the game, many fans removed the stadium seats as souvenirs, and Wembley was officially closed afterwards.
Subsequently, the English FA began to build the new Wembley Stadium.
Wembley Stadium is regarded by the British as a symbol of British sports. Due to the intervention of various interest groups, the debate surrounding the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium has never stopped, and the construction costs have continued to increase.
After several twists and turns, the new Wembley Stadium was finally completed and put into use in 2007. That year's FA Cup final was held at the new Wembley Stadium.
The new Wembley, which cost £780 million, is a modern high-tech stadium with 90,000 seats and a floating retractable roof, making it the largest covered stadium in the world.
.....
Just as the team members were preparing to set off, Luton city center was almost boiling.
When the team's bus drove out of the training base gate, they found that the entire street was densely packed with fans wearing Luton's orange home jerseys.
In this game, Arsenal drew the home team's locker room, so they were wearing Arsenal's red home jerseys. However, since the color of Luton's home jersey does not clash with Arsenal's at all, the Luton players who drew the away team's locker room also wore their home jerseys in the game.
Banners and flags fluttered on the streets, and fans cheered.
When they saw the team's bus coming out, the atmosphere reached its peak.
"Wembley!! Wembley!! Wembley!!!!"
The players were shocked by the atmosphere created by the fans. Not to mention the young players now, even John, who has served the team for more than 20 years, has never seen Luton fans so fanaticism.
"This is... everyone in Luton has come out, right!" Lin Sen smacked his lips. After coming to England, he truly realized the meaning of football to English fans.
Taking Luton as an example, most of the people living in Luton are also fans of the Luton team. They have been die-hard fans of one team since their ancestors.
Gao Bo stood in front of the car. The training base gate was connected to a straight road.
This road is one of Luton's main roads, and even the team's home stadium is named after this road - this is the Vauxhall Road that runs through the entire Luton city center.
From the training base gate, you can see the end of Vauxhall Road. The main road, which is two or three kilometers long, is densely packed with people.
"This is too exaggerated..."
Gao Bo and John looked at each other and saw shock in each other's eyes. Then he quickly saw Alexander, who was very active in the crowd. The owner of the tavern seemed to be the head of a fan club, and he was now directing the crowd to maintain order.
"Alexander, how did you guys create such a big scene?!" Gao Bo got out of the car and walked to Alexander.
The arrival of the head coach caused cheers from the fans, and Alexander had to shout: "We are preparing to go to Wembley with the team!!"
"The game time is 5 pm, and how are you going to get there with so many people?" Gao Bo pointed helplessly at the densely packed crowd on the street. He was a little worried now that if something went wrong with so many people, what would he do!
"Railway!! We're going by train!! We chartered two trains with the railway company!!" Alexander smiled, "It's a big deal for the team to reach the semi-finals, of course we have to participate in it."
Gao Bo knew this. The FA gave Luton 30,000 tickets, and as a result, on the day of ticket sales, the official website sales channel was overwhelmed by Luton fans. You know, Luton is just a city with only a few hundred thousand people....
After that, Luton only had to put all the tickets on offline sales channels, and fans almost queued up all night just to grab a Wembley ticket.
"You don't just have 30,000 people, do you?" Gao Bo said, pointing to the crowd on the street, "And even if you take the train, you probably can't transport so many people."
Gao Bo didn't know much about the train's transportation capacity, but even in China, a train with sixteen carriages can only carry about one or two thousand people...
"That is a problem, we can take a few more trips... haha" Alexander said with a smile.
"This is just the semi-final. What if the team enters the final?!"
"Uh..... then we'll do it again when we get to the final.." Alexander said, but he was Mutter in his heart.
I'm afraid there will be no chance to enter the final...
Gao Bo didn't know what the fans were thinking, but seeing the sensational crowd, at least it showed that in Wembley, Luton's fan power would not lose to Arsenal by much.
Gao Bo was still very happy about this.
....
When the team's bus drove out of the city, the players found that behind the bus, there was actually a long line of cars following!
Some vehicles also stretched out Luton's team flags from the windows, and the flags fluttered in the wind.
These are also Luton fans!!!!
The players were shocked by the array created by the fans.
When the bus drove onto the M1 highway, the line of cars behind it converged into a long dragon, rushing towards Wembley Stadium.