Quick post reminding Gooners that we’ll be at Maggie McGarry’s this Sunday for the Community Shield match against Man City! There’s likely to be a small contingent of Citeh fans there and the Patrick Dunphy Memorial framed dollar bill is awarded to supporters of the winning side. Don’t forget – Maggie’s is 21+.
For many Gooners living in America, Arsenal coming over, is the first (for some, the only) opportunity to see their beloved English football side in person. Despite the somewhat inconsequential nature of these friendlies, the excitement is palatable amongst our crowd.
Parties Across America
First stop is the nation’s capital, with Arsenal playing the MLS All-Stars at the home of DC United and the Washington Spirit. The DC Armoury branch of Arsenal America has a number of events planned around the match.
They’re also partnering with Metrograph to present a special 35mm showing of “Fever Pitch”, the film adaptation of Nick Horby’s classic Arsenal novel. Get your tickets here!
Finally, the Gunners hit the West Coast with a match in Los Angeles against a little known Spanish side, FC Barcelona. Arsenal Los Angeles has already announced a welcome party the weekend before the match. More L.A. events are expected.
Timber!
Today, Arsenal finally announced the signing of defender, Jurriën Timber! Now, it’s just a question of when the club will announce the much anticipated side dish of Rice.
Join us next Wednesday!
Bay Area Gooners not traveling to Washington DC, can join us at Maggie McGarry’s for the match! We’ll provide Golden Boy Pizza, so help us out and let us know if you’re coming. RSVP by claiming your free ticket here. Remember, Maggie’s is 21+.
Hope to see you at Maggie’s on July 19th. Please let us know if you’re coming.
Definitely something in the air. Stateside Gooners eagerly await Arsenal’s preseason visit to the United States, with stops in Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the club has not been idle. William Saliba and Reiss Nelson both signed new deals, and the mercurial but beloved Granit Xhaka is moving on.
The Gunners signed attacking midfielder, Kai Havertz and if the Twitter rumor mill is to be believed, the club will announce midfielder, Declan Rice and defender, Jurriën Timber, any day now.
All this is creating a lot of anticipation. Gooners who responded to our off-season poll, indicated a desire to gather before the season starts. The first of those opportunities will be Wednesday, July 19th, when Arsenal take on the MLS All-Stars in our nation’s capital. Bay Area Gooners not traveling east can join us at Maggie McGarry’s for the match
Over in the East Bay, our offshoot supporters group is solidifying and moving towards “official” status. If you live on that side of the bay and coming to Maggie’s isn’t viable, check them out.
Hope to see you at Maggie’s on July 19th. Please let us know if you’re coming.
We’ve had a little time to reflect on the Arsenal season, but it’s already time to move on. Transfer window speculation has already hit peak insanity and the 2023-2024 season fixture list dropped yesterday.
Bay Area Gooners can now plan their life accordingly, beginning in August. The scheduling gods have cursed West Coast Arsenal fans for the first match of the season with a 4:30am kickoff but thankfully, many of the early matches are at reasonable times.
As exciting as the prospect of a new season is, there’s a lot of footy during in the off-season. Arsenal travel to the United States and there’s the Women’s World Cup. So in an attempt to garner opinions about off-season gatherings as well as other matters, ourOff-Season Poll has been launched!
Hope you will take a moment to answer a few simple questions, and that I see you soon.
Definitely not the finish we’d hoped for. Arsenal’s title challenge simply ran out of gas, at the same time as Man City’s kicked into top gear. The end of the season was particularly hard for our group as we mourned the loss of our friend, Brent Yocom.
Despite everything, it’s been an exciting season at Maggie McGarry’s. Some stressful thrilling moments, along with a few demoralizing ones, but our gatherings saw a return pre-pandemic numbers. We even got 100+ for a 4:30am North London Derby! There’s still a void where Patrick, our Gooner bartender, once stood, but Andy, Mick, JJ, Mairéad, and a few others, made sure the pub was open for all Arsenal matches.
We welcomed back long-time regulars, along with plenty of new faces, and visitors from near and far. We hosted a charitable raffle to raise funds for the non-profit, Youth Speaks, and it was the first such event in almost 4 years. My hope is we’ll get back to doing our good works on a regular basis.
Now we get to do it one more time. Our final match viewing of the regular season. Nothing really to play for as City have claimed the title, but we’ve locked down 2nd place, and a spot in the Champions League. We’ve locked down key young players like Saka and Martinelli, so the future looks bright indeed.
I will likely organize some off-season events for our group, but it would be great to get a crowd for the season finale. I never take for granted the community we’ve built here and look forward to seeing you at the pub.
Arsenal’s loss to Brighton & Hove last week, effectively ending their title challenge was depressing and demoralizing. But it pales compared to the personal loss, we endured this week.
Long time Bay Area Gooner, Brent Yocom passed away this week. He was 46. Brent joined our group in 2011, and was immediately hard to miss. He was funny, gregarious, boisterous, and many knew him as the first Gooner they ever met here. I could always count on Brent to chat up new Gooners and make them feel at home. He dragged more first timers to Maggie’s than anyone I know.
Brent moved here from Philly and was beyond dedicated to his hometown teams. He launched an Eagles fan group at the Northstar on Powell and Green, and much like here, he was a welcoming presence, creating community around a team he loved. He was also a DJ, producer, and passionate about all things music.
He had a funny habit of buying Arsenal jerseys of the most random players. He owned the only Chamakh shirt I ever saw at Maggie’s and of course, his infamous Kallstrom jersey, a player who only made 4 appearances for Arsenal. There are rumors he went on a date with an Arsenal women’s player, though I cannot verify the veracity of that report.
Brent and I were quoted in a Guardian article on US soccer fans. He said he was drawn to Arsenal by Emmanuel Adebayor and “a fucking cannon” as their logo. He was annoyed they spelled his name wrong, but still very proud to be quoted.
Brent struggled with his health a lot, but those who knew him, saw him as a bright light, generous and dedicated to his friends, a guy who would do anything for them.
The last thing he would want is a moment of silence, so at the 46th (45+ 1 minute of extra time) minute of Saturday’s game, raise a glass, cheer, or just make some noise in Brent’s memory. Note: if there is no extra time to the first half, we’ll do it just as the half ends.
My fervent hope, is that anytime you meet a new Gooner here, you’ll be like Brent and make them feel welcome.
Loved Arsenal doing the business at Newcstle. Fully expected it to be one of the sterner tests, but with a little luck, the Gunners persevered in a scrappy, nervy affair.
Brighton & Hove Albion FC visit the Emirates on Sunday and I’m not imagining any sort of a cakewalk. The Seagulls have done the business there several times, including a 2-1 low point last season. Theirs is a similar style of play, so it could be a fairly open game.
We’ll have to do it without Saliba and now Zinchenko, and despite Arteta’s public optimism, it is looking like their seasons are over.
Still needing City to drop points, which they show absolutely no sign of doing. They have 4 matches left (to Arsenal’s 3) in which to do it, but I find myself pleading with the football gods for a little more time.
We are back at Maggie’s Sunday! It’s Mother’s Day, so bring your moms. We’ll have a photographer at the pub, so you and Mom may end up on this website or in our socials.
BAG scarves and t-shirts are available, while supplies last.
As lovely as it was to watch Arsenal trounce a hapless Chelsea, it only put the Gunners back on top for a matter of hours before City beat West Ham to reclaim their spot.
The Hammers put up valiant fight, before the reigning champions did what they do and put 3 past them. City show no signs of dropping points, but why worry about things outside our control. What we need from Arsenal is a fight to the finish.
Arsenal head to Newcastle Sunday and beating the Magpies at home is a tough assignment. They’ve become a formidable contender, who’ve won 7 of their last 8 (insert snide aside about buckets of blood money here). The Gunners were hard done by questionable officiating when the two sides met in January, but that seems so long ago.
We’re back at at Maggie’s Sunday for the match! It’s a lovely 8:30am start and we’re hoping to see a good turnout. Arsenal’s late season stumble stings, but this seems a good opportunity to separate true Gooners from the bandwagon fans.
What a difference a week makes. We now sit in 2nd place, 1 point behind Manchester City and they’ve got a game in hand. The result of our 4-1 defeat at the Etihad Stadium, which quite frankly looked like men against boys.
We lost to the better side, but it’s frustrating when your opponent is the “footballing equivalent of Lance Armstrong” (Elliott Ross). But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the title was lost (if it is indeed lost) with 3 successive draws, against teams we should have beaten.
So where are we now? Guaranteed of finishing above the Tiny Totts and all but assured of Champions League football. Arsenal could still win the league but City would have to drop points, which seems unlikely, given their form, and the ease with which, they substitute one £50+ million player for another.
Regardless, the Bay Area Gooners will be at Maggie’s for all of the remaining 5 matches. As we have been (pandemic non-withstanding) since 2006. Tomorrow it’s a floundering, loathsome Chelsea. Kickoff is 12pm.
If you are an Arsenal America member, you received pre-sale ticket information already. Please select Bay Area Gooners as your designated branch during the AA membership process, as it really does benefit us.
I won’t be at the pub for tomorrow’s match as I’m still recovering, but expect me back in the pub for Newcastle.
This is the big one. Truth be told, it was always going to be about Wednesday’s match at the Etihad Stadium. The young Guns against those plucky financial fair play dodgers. Arsenal has hit a run of draws at an inopportune time while Man City are firing on all their billion dollar cylinders.
Still, these are the matches legends are built on, and except for a couple of glaring errors, the Gunners might have beaten them in the earlier match-up. Really want to see Arsenal fight their way back to form.
Mick and the other City supporters will no doubt be at the pub Wednesday. They really haven’t been much of a presence this season. Perhaps success gets boring after awhile. But you can expect them to crawl from the woodwork for this one. Let’s remind them it’s our pub and generate a turnout to not just rival, but outnumber theirs.
Sadly, I am ill and after arranging this day off, months in advance, it is unlikely I will get to Maggie’s. I’m going to depend on you lot to make a good showing in my absence.
Bay Area Gooners 