Patrick Vieira walks in on Crystal Palace dancers in what ended up being a hilarious yet awkward reaction for both the group and manager.
The Frenchman heads into a room, only to stumble upon the Crystal Palace cheerleaders who had been practising and doing a TikTok video.
They danced along to a pre-made routine before Vieira appears in the doorway. As Vieira enters the room, the three cheerleaders suddenly discover he’s lurking behind them, and instantly laugh before running away with embarrassment.
Patrick Vieira’s reaction when walking in on the Crystals making a TikTok has has amused me. pic.twitter.com/chh54H9HJm
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) December 16, 2022
— James Laws (@JamesLaws92) December 16, 2022
The Crystals are the group of cheerleaders that perform at every home match and are the only Premier League side that still has a cheerleading outfit, after a few years back saw some controversy.
Whilst cheerleading is more an American thing here, say many in the UK, The Crystals actually began performing for the club in 2010, years before the majority of the Crystal Palace owners were American businessmen, shortly after Steve Parish and Martin Long had taken over at the club, say WeAreThePalace.
The dance group including women aged over 21 with some of them being professionally trained dancers and others do it as a hobby.
A few of the females have even been Palace season ticket holders before they joined the troupe.
The pandemic stopped fans at matches in 2020, this meant The Crystals weren’t able to perform.
However, in the 2021/22 season, they have been performing in the Palace Fanzone and returned to the pitch for the 3-0 win over Arsenal at Selhurst Park.
Back in 2018, there were some calls in the media that Crystal Palace should part ways with The Crystals, mainly coming off the back of the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) and Formula One announcing that they’d be removing the walk-on women and grid women from both sports.
This led to the club releasing a statement in support of having The Crystals perform at home matches. This is the statement from 2018:
”The Crystals are a semi-professional dance troupe who have been performing at Selhurst Park for more than seven years and contribute to the unique atmosphere inside the stadium, which is widely recognised as one of the best in the Premier League.
“They also raise substantial amounts of money for good causes throughout the year. We are proud of our association with them.”
@thecrystalscpfc What a win today ⚽️ #cpfc #crystalpalace #dancers #cheerleaders #eagles #foryoupage #fyp #crystals #crystalpalacecheerleaders #houseoftiktok #premierleague #matchday ♬ original sound – The crystals
The video of Vieira walking in on the cheerleaders has been widely shared on social media by fans, mostly those of Palace who were stunned by Vieira’s ‘dad vibes’ in the entranceway.
Palace are back in action on Boxing Day when they welcome Fulham into Selhurst Park. They are hoping to outdo their London counterparts during the festive period.
Palace currently sit in the bottom half, but Vieira’s team are just three points behind sixth-placed Liverpool.
Speaking with Palace TV, he said he will continue his demanding schedule – training before and after lunch – in the buildup to the Premier League return, because “we have a lot we still want to improve.”
Commenting after the 2-1 friendly win over Real Valladolid this week, Vieira explained: “We have the weekend off and a double session on Monday. We have a lot to catch up on because we have a lot we still want to improve.
“We want to challenge ourselves, want to compete every single game we’re going to face and the best way to do that is to prepare. When we start the games will be one after the other, so the big job, the big work, has to be done now.”
He said that “it was good to win but I was pleased with the performance as well,” adding: “It’s always good to go back and win football matches and today was really competitive. We found it really difficult to create chances and came back in the second-half and played better in the last third. This is one of the reasons why we scored those two goals.”
“We changed at half-time and put him [Zaha] more as a No.9 and [Odsonne] Edouard went more on the left-hand side,” Vieira said.
“Wilfried’s timing at running in-behind is really interesting and at the same time Edouard when he comes to play between the lines can create the overload you always want. Wilfried is a goalscorer – and should score more than two today!”
Wilfried Zaha said that Crystal Palace have been working on being more clinical when in front of goal over the winter break, but that they still have more to do.
Speaking with Palace TV, Zaha said: “It’s weird considering the talent we have, the dribblers we have. In the final half we just need to be more clinical.
“I feel like that’s things the gaffer has worked on throughout the time we had away in Turkey. So getting a win today is definitely going to give us confidence going into our first game back.
“I wasn’t happy with the first-half and definitely made it known when we went inside. But I’m glad we went back out there and changed things up a bit and pressed them properly. I’m happy to end with a win, we deserved it.”
Zaha scored a spot kick to seal the win, striking confidently down the middle after miscuing against Botafogo earlier in the month. He said he wouldn’t entertain passing on the responsibility: “That’s not me, man. I couldn’t do that.
“What kind of chicken am I?! No, man. I’ll miss [at times] but at the end of the day I’m man enough to stand up and take it again and just have to make sure I score. Today I’m happy I did, so the gaffer has a decision now – either he keeps me on or he doesn’t! I think he should after I scored today.”
Patrick Vieira adds that the squad are in for more double training sessions after two weeks’ worth already, Zaha reflected on a demanding period for the squad.
While laughing, he said: “It has been [hard work], it definitely has been. It is what it is, I’m not going to complain. I complain enough off the camera! It is what it is and it’s making a difference to the team.”
Twitter users reacted as Patrick Vieira walks in on Crystal Palace dancers in what ended up being a hilarious awkward reaction…
@GFortt: I thought he was going to Chuck a little move in 🤣
@dannnnnps: I’ve seen this plot somewhere before… 🤔
@DoumouZacki: Oh I love him 😂😂😂
@jackslatercufc: 3 birds, one Viera.
@JoshMags: We all know how this script ends
@ArsenalInterac1: Patrick Vieira’s TikTok coming soon…
@JayBCFC_: Bloke thought the invite was for something else 🤣
@Chinsgram: He’s literally such a dad 😂 Uncle Viera
@bencainss: I’ve seen this film before
@Almere_Arsenal: I reckon we know how part 2 normally ends up like
@OhioV1: Uncle Patrick has FINISHED ME 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@GoToBedHunter: Big Paddy V was fucking loving it
@CM_Knowles: I usually skip these parts of the video..
@hayre_amrit: He knew what he was doing since he walked past them before entering 😂
@JoshVallance6: Like a scene from Brazzers
@ac2618026: Why are they acting embarrassed about getting caught doing a dance routine isn’t that their job?
@zeus71stav: They are lucky it wasn’t Roy Keane
@Gabinellli: Big pat is loving what he sees 😅😅
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