Aston Villa Football Club - California Supporters: November 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Ugly

Not sure what to say about that match yesterday against Spurs. It was plain ugly. Villa looked totally disinterested. Spurs were aggressive on defense and Villa, well, looked like they were afraid to get too close to the man with the ball. Possession and shots were totally lopsided in Spurs favor. When you give any team the opportunity to walk into the penalty area with the ball and shoot multiple times, eventually they will score.

The "disinterested" part scares me. This is the first time I think I have seen this with the Villa. Not sure what to make of it. To top it off, it appeared that there was no change in game plan after coming out for the 2nd half. Huh?

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dang it!!

I am at the Streets of London pub in J Street in downtown Sacramento and found out that todays game is not on ESPN2, only on ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com. Fortunately, I have my laptop so I'll just have to watch the match on the "small" screen. Up the Villa!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Corona, CA Neighborhood - Premiership

I stumbled upon an interesting neighborhood in Corona, CA (45-50 miles south east of Los Angeles). It is a little development (looks like an in-fill project). The interesting thing about it is that the street names within this development are "Aston Villa Way", "Bolton St.", "Arsenal Way", and "Fulham St.". The street names surrounding this little cluster of town homes look like regular street names (no football connections). Sure would like to find out the story behind this. Of course, Aston Villa Way is that main street! UTV!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Shambolic Football Podcast

Our own Ken Kawamura, AVFC California member, has started producing a podcast focused on the Premiership and is now available on iTunes. Click here: Shambolic Football Podcast

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Victory!

Gabby and Bent join forces to take down Norwich City 3-2 yesterday and lead Villa to 3 points. Gabby set up each of Darren Bent's 2 goals and scored one of his own. A great day for the Villa and all of us Villa supporters around the world!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Honorary Member

Today, AVFC California received a note from our honorary life-member, Mr. Tom Hanks. UTV!

How Did You Become a Villa Supporter?

"I wonder how many fans are actually originally from Birmingham or surrounding area. I am and I'm always interested if someone isn't from near Villa Park, why did they pick Villa as the team to follow." .............................................................................................. "I like Rick's story, he picked Villa as they were 'sponsored' by Acorns Children's Hospice at the time, a cause close to Rick's heart."..................................................................................................................... "I was born in Solihull (12 miles south of Villa Park) and my older bro turned me into a Villa supporter"................................................................................................................ "I am originally from Vauxhall (Birmingham B7) and have followed the Villa since my dad took me to see a game at Villa Park on my 4th birthday. I was a season ticket holder at VP from 1968 until I moved over here twelve years ago."........................................................................................................................"I am from Halesowen which is right next to the black country. Which is tesco carrier bag territory. However my dad is from the city and he always took me and my brother to villa games. I was a season ticket holder in the holte untill 2007 when I moved out here."......................................................................................................................."So why do I support Villa if I've never been to Birmingham? That's a very good question that I've asked myself many times over the years. When I started following the league almost everyone was a Liverpool fan for the same reason almost everyone now is a United, City, or Chelsea fan. Not being someone who follows the crowd I wanted to support a team that was unique and different. When I was a kid, Andy Gray was one of my favorite players and I used to read his columns in Shoot magazine about playing for Villa and thought a lot of the things about the team were unique: the team name, colors, and specially the history."..................................................................................................................."Born just a couple of miles from Villa park, with my father, mother, grandparents and more than half of my extended family with claret and blue blood (you can work out who the rest of that motley crew supported SOTC) it was written in the stars that I was going to be Villa through and through."...................................................................................................................I was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. Played the game for 30 some odd years and have been a Villa fan all my life. I have seen 2 live games(both losses, but a great atmosphere none the less). My grandfather was a steward at Villa Park for many years. My father and brother are members of the Canadian Villa fan club in Toronto. I'm here in the central valley, and know of couple of villa fans here in Fresno................................................................................................................