Chelsea FC: My Memories of “Super” Frank Lampard
The saddening but not unexpected news of Frank Lampard’s departure from Chelsea Football Club broke earlier this week, I spent some time to reflect on what his career at Chelsea meant to me as a supporter.
As I’ve said before, compared to some I’m a relative newcomer to following the Blues, I started watching a bit in 2003, and more closely in 2006-7, but the 2008 season was what I consider my true starting point of being a proper Chelsea supporter, as that spring I watched closely during the run up to the Champions League final in Moscow.
When I began to support Chelsea, a good friend of mine had led me to them, he always mentioned Super Frank and how great he was. Despite being new to the game, even I could see when watching matches the hard work he put in every second he was on the pitch for Chelsea, and how much he clearly loved this team and its fans.
My first real memory of Super Frank standing above the others was in the run up to that 2008 Champions league final. The Liverpool semi-final was an emotional one already, the rivalry between the two clubs was stunning and intense, but this match would be even more emotional for Lampard, whose mother had tragically died the week before. After the first leg went 1-1, Drogba put Chelsea ahead in the 2nd leg, only for then-Liverpool striker Fernando Torres to draw the Reds level. In extra time Chelsea won a penalty, and up stepped our talented midfielder. The whistle blew, he fired the ball past Reina, sprinted to the corner flag and kissed the black armband he wore in honor of his mother. The raw emotion of the moment still brings a chill to my spine, as the Chelsea players surrounded him and helped him stand up, knowing he had almost assuredly sent them on to their first European Cup final.
However, my favorite Super Frank moment of all was one I had the privilege to experience in person. On March 17th 2013, Chelsea hosted West Ham at Stamford Bridge, and Frank Lampard was in the hunt for Chelsea’s all time goal record. I was living and studying in Wales and the time, and this was the last match I could make work before I returned to the USA, so I scrounged up and found a ticket, and what a ticket it was.
Shed Lower, Row 1. Dead center behind the goal.
Frank was sitting on goal number 199 ahead of this match. It was only fitting that he had to score such a milestone goal against West Ham, the club that Chelsea bought him from in 2001 and whose fans hate him the most.
Just 19 minutes in, after a first attempt on goal was blocked back out to Eden Hazard, the young Belgian eyed Lampard drifting between 3 West Ham defenders and lobbed a perfect cross into the middle. Lampard jumped, and fired a headed ball right into the back of the net. Goal, 1-0 to Chelsea, the 200th for Super Frank and it was scored directly in front of me. I went mental (as did everyone else) as Lampard ran to the corner flag in front of the West Ham fans in the Shed Lower, and celebrated with captain John Terry. The West Ham fans threw coins and whatever else they had, covering that corner of the pitch in debris, but Stamford Bridge was electric. Chelsea would win 2-0, the second goal coming from Hazard himself on 50 minutes. It was a brilliant day, and I’ll never forget how “Frankie Lampard scored 200”.
Frank Lampard was a loyal servant to Chelsea Football Club, and he will be sorely missed both for his contributions on the pitch, as well as for the person he was off it. Lamps never gave up an opportunity to show his appreciation for the fans, and he will always remain one of my favorite players of all time. This interview he gave on the pitch after Chelsea had won their first Champions League remains one of my favorites, when at the end Lamps addresses his daughters at home saying “I told you Chelsea were the best team in the world, and tonight we are! Get in there!”
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