Travel Tips

Manchester United FC play their games at Old Trafford, also known as the Theatre of Dreams. If you want to see inside . . . let's go!

Inside--this is hallowed ground. What an amazing stadium, especially compared with what we have for soccer facilities in the USA.

The turf is exquisite. We would have paid extra to touch it . . . really! If you don't play, you probably won't understand.

Inside the stadium you get to see many places, including the players' lounge, the area where they eat their pre-game meal, the post-game press conference areas, and the locker rooms. In this photo, my husband is standing in front of the International Honours Board. If you have ever played for United and also been capped for your national team, your name goes here. One American, Jovan Kirovski, is on the list.

This is the players' bench, where the subs sit during matches. (Behind the brick wall--they don't make them sit on the ground . . .)

Do you feel a little nervous? This is what the players see as they emerge from the players' tunnel on game day, ready to take the field. Roll on, United!!

Continue on for matchday . . .

We've got our tickets, we've got our program, and we've shopped at the Megastore. Time to get inside!

Inside, we discover that my friend Mark (who has a cousin on the team) has hooked us up with great seats. I'm not sure why we don't look happier . . .

Here you can see where we were sitting, behind the goal and just high enough up to see the flow of play. That's Dylan and Alex (another cousin of Mark's, who was home from University and served as our guide for the day).

Here's how that turf stays so lovely and green--the groundscrew. They are inspecting the pitch before gametime, and for some reason watered each quarter of the field. It seemed an odd decision later, as the players were slipping in many places.

The crowd is beginning to arrive. This is a view toward the corner where they seat the away fans, about 3,000 of them each game. If you look closely, you can see a section where there is a long, vertical line of yellow-coated stewards. This is the first section of home fans next to the away fans, and the folks at Old Trafford don't want any trouble. Middlesbrough are considered a "low-risk" opponent (meaning little chance for inter-fan squabbles), but still there is security everywhere. Before we left all we heard from friends were comments like "Don't get in any fights" "Watch out for hooligans." But honestly, there was so much good, inobtrusive security everywhere that we never felt in any danger whatsoever.

Moments to kickoff, and the stands are full. Nearly 68,000 people show up week in and week out to watch the Red Devils work their magic. It was truly breathtaking. (Note: in honor of my husband's Welsh ancestry, I've managed to catch Ryan Giggs' picture on the starting lineup marquee.)

FWEEEEEEEEEET!!!!
Here we go here we go here we go . . .

I thought I might catch David Beckham tucking away one of his patented free kicks here, but alas it was not to be. In fact, you'll notice that my matchday travelogue ends here--no bulges in the ol' onion bag for United this day.
:-( Middlesbrough did us in 1-nil.

Continue to my Manchester and Salford travelogue for some views of this charming city.