Fortunately, the schedule dictated their opponent today at Carrow Road was West Bromwich Albion, one of those middle-of-the-table teams safely into the EPL for next season but not competing for a spot in European play. In short, West Brom had nothing to play for, and thus didn't care at all.
Norwich City 4:0 West Brom. Coupled with the other results from the weekend, the Canaries are now safe. They actually leapfrogged a whole bunch of teams and are now in 12th place, of all things, which shows just how many bad teams the EPL has this season.
Carrow Road was apparently quite a festive atmosphere today, awash in chants of “We’re staying up! We’re staying up!” as the Canaries continued hammering the hapless Baggies. The takeaway from this, of course, is a bit odd – “We don’t completely suck!” really isn't that much of a rallying cry. But it was something to play for, the objective was met, the benefits are enormous and the feat is, in the moment, worthy of considerable joy. The Canaries are in a good place here going forward, and with another £50m+ to bankroll for next season they will have some options.
And I am looking forward to seeing them here this summer when the Good Guys come to California. One of the delightful oddities of America's place in the game of soccer is that players from elsewhere generally like coming here, because there is enough of a subculture of knowledgable fandom established to give them a worthwhile reception, but not the sort of lunatic, frenzied, paparazzi type atmosphere that surrounds big European leagues. A good number of the EPL clubs will make their way to the US this summer, as is their norm, including the Canaries, who are playing here in the Bay Area vs. the San Jose Earthquakes on ...
July 20th, which is when I'll be in Las Vegas.
Nertz.
Even on a glorious, day, there just has to be some LOSE involved.
