Friday, June 23, 2006
Well done Svennis
What an idiot. We really do have problems now with just 3 fit strikers (1 is useless and 1 has never played in the Premiership. In Tuesdays day with Sweden in Cologne, Michael Owen ruptured cruciate ligaments after just 1 minute and is unlikely to play again this year.
It's true that Owen hasn't found his best form yet but the same could be said of virtually every player and Owen is a tournament player. His record in the knock-out stages is played 4, scored 4 and losing him is a big blow to our chances.
Almost blindly, Eriksson still refuses to acknowledge there are problems. There was a good comment in the Times which summed up everything better than I could have write;
ASIDE FROM LOSING HIS TOP goalscorer to a serious knee injury, perhaps his senior centre half and leaking two goals with schoolboy defending, Sven-Göran Eriksson claimed that “there were many positive things” that came out of England’s 2-2 draw with Sweden. If he had been Mrs Lincoln, perhaps he would have said that “yes, apart from the shooting, I did rather enjoy the show”.
But enough of the football, lets move onto Cologne. For the third time, in just under 2 weeks, I jetted into Germany and amazingly with no delays for which I'm very grateful. My friend Paul met me at Cologne/Bonn airport as he was struggling for a hotel room so I said he could share with me. TIP: Don't drive in Cologne, it's a nightmare and with thousands of extra people around for the football, life didn't get much easier. The next shock was realising the hotel website hadn't charged my credit card when I made the reservation so I had to pay up for rooms which I thought were already paid for.
Eventually, we made our way over to an area of Cologne on the west side of the Rheine, near the Hauptbanhof to meet friends and get drunk. The first thing we saw was a guy passed out with paramedics sticking a needle in his arm - Welcome to Cologne.
There were thousands of people in the area drinking in the numerous cafes and bars and generally having a good time. The atmosphere was very friendly and at times, a bit rowdy with groups of people singing - English, Swedes and Germans. Sometime after midnight, we made our way back to the hotel and crashed out. The next morning, we went down to the Rheine Energie Stadion as I had to collect to tickets for the last 16 match in Leipzig. Its always good to know how long it takes to get to the stadium as well.
Outside the collection point, I met up with a friend who was looking for a ticket. A tout had quoted 800 Euros which was a lot less than the 1400 Euros we had been expecting after speaking to touts in Nuremburg. This is almost certainly due to the fact England had qualified and people were saving their money for the last 16 match. Later we heard that by kick-off, people had managed to get tickets for under 150 Euros.
We saw loads of Swedish fans in Cologne and as normal, there were tens of thousands of England fans in the city as well. For once, it looked like the crowd would be made up of real supporters. At the ground, we queued to get through the first security gates. This is the gate where they really take things seriously - no big flags, no drinks (you have to buy those in the stadium, of course) and definitely no advertising slogans. The Swedish guy in front of me had a small flag, about the size of a regular photo. In the corner was "IKEA" which some people couldn't read without their glasses. Yup, definitely not allowed to bring that in. Absolutely pathetic. I was less than impressed and being slightly drunk, I questioned the steward (rather loudly), if I was allowed in wearing my shorts as they had a NIKE logo on them as they aren't an official World Cup sponsor either. Luckily for the people around me, I was allowed to keep my shorts.
I won't go into details about the game but our long non-winning run against Sweden continues due to school-boy defending by John Terry allowed Larsson score equalise with practically the last kick of the game. At least it didn't affect who we played in the last 16 and now it's off to Stuttgart to face Ecuador on Sunday at 17:00.
SO now the tournament starts for real. No more messing around with tables, points and goal difference - it's pure knock-out. Draws are no good, winning is everything. England's path seems to be OK with a game against surprise team Ecuador and then after hopefully winning that, we have avoided Argentina in the QF. I'm leaving to fly to Munich in a couple of hours before catching the train to Stuttgart on Sunday morning. Lets hope I have something positive to report back next week
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Meeting the Soca Warriors
England's 2nd Group B match took us south to the beautiful city of Nuremburg to play the tiny Caribbean Island of Trinidad & Tobago. Their fans, the Soca Warriors, certainly brightened up the city along with 50,000 or so England fans who were also in town, it provided a cracking few days.
Many of us have planned our trips to the games so we arrive the day before but obviously not everyone can do this. Unfortunatley, this cost a few hundred England Fans very dear. On the morning of the game, supporters arrived at Birmingham airport to catch their charter flights out to Nuremburg. At 6am, a TNT freight plane came in for landing and as it touched down, the landing gear collapsed. Thankfully, no-one was hurt but it meant that more than 70 flights were cancelled included flights that were due to take fans to Nuremburg. One of my friends was meant to be on one of these flights and it broke his 35 game run of attending England matches. With most flights to Germany from other airports already booked up, it was just impossible to make it to Nuremburg in time. To compound the sad situation even further, FIFA refused to allow the match tickets to be transferred to England fans who were having to pay up to 500 Euros to touts. FIFA are an absolute disgrace the way they disregard fans. They are far more interested in lining their own pockets. As the teams came out at the Frankenstadion, some children were carrying a banner which read "Fair Play Is My Game". Obviously a case of "Do as I say, not as I do". I'll have a bit more of a detailed rant at FIFA after the tournament is over but for now, there is too much else to write about.
I arrived quite early at Nuremburg and decided to hang around waiting for a friend who was due to land 30 minutes later. While I was there, I saw one someone with a sign saying "Franz Beckenbauer" so I was hoping to get a picture of the great man but he never appeared. I guess men of his stature don't need to go through the plebe section of the arrivals hall. Eventually my friend arrived and we checked into our hotel before heading off to the stadium. Its always good to know where you are heading and have a look around. On top of that, I also had some FIFA tickets to collect. The stadium is right next to the site where the Nuremburg rallies took place. It was quite an experience to stand at the same place where Hitler stood 70 years earlier ranting to 200,000 people although we didn't get a chance to go to the museum. We eventually found the ticket office but for some reason, they decided they weren't issuing FIFA tickets today....and I didn't think my opinion of FIFA could get any lower. Lets hope I can get them in Cologne next week instead.
After a few photos, we made our way back into town and over to the Hauptmarket where there numerous beer tents and TV screens had been set up. The big match of the day was Germany v Poland. Obviously there were a lot of home fans around. Defeat for Poland would mean their tournament was over and given the bad reputation of their fans, there weren't many of us who would be upset at their exit as meeting them in the last 16 was a real possibility. Although we were more interested in talking to other fans than watching the game, we saw bits of it and Germany ended up winning 1-0 and you saw the unusal site of England fans cheering a German win.
The 6pm kick-off gave us plenty of time to have a few drinks before the game. It was only a short trip over to the stadium. The weatherman had promised rain but it was scorching hot and there was little wind too cool us down. One of the supermarkets near the square ran out of water such was the demand. The Hauptmarket was packed with England and Trinidad fans. St Georges crosses hung from every possible location and it wasn't long before the Soca Warriors carnival atmosphere kicked off.
After a few hours in the baking sun, we made our way over to the stadium. We soon passed through the bag search although a number of people had problems with their flags and a number were confiscated. At any England game, you will see flags all round the stadium. Supporters arrived there hours before kick-off in order to get their flags in prime position. However, in Germany, a number of flags have been confiscated. In Frankfurt, some West Ham supporters had their flags confiscated as they had crossed hammers on them. The reason was it was confused for a facist symbol....anyway ever had a close look at the Lazio badge ??? FIFA have since admitted their error on this count and apparently, the supporters were given tickets for another match.
In Nuremburg, there were a number of stories of flags being confiscated as they were advertising something such as a pub name or website. This situation is getting ridiculous, the game is for the fans, not faceless corporations !!!! Other examples of FIFA stupidity were trying to confiscate flags larger than 1m, white plastic bowler hats with a red cross over them (they were thought to be army helmets) and trying to confiscate a QPR (Queens Park Rangers) flag as the stewards thought it may be political.
Before the match we saw Frank Lampard senior near us but didn't get the chance for a photo. Once again, we found the 2 madmen from Luton dressed up as knights and they kindly posed for a photo with that bloke from Village People (see the photo at the top). Once the in ground the atmosphere was better than in Frankfurt but still less than expected for a tournament match. There was one attempt at a Mexican wave which was quickly stopped. Yesterday, I also read that the Serbian fans also refused to take part in a Mexican wave - good lads !!!
The game itself was dreadful. T&T were very well organised and England seemed to struggle to break them down. We had a number of chances, Owen missed a couple but the worst offender was Crouch who put a free header and a volley wide from close range. The humid conditions didn't help the supporters patience but on 58 minutes, the volume in the stadium was lifted when The White Pele, Wayne Rooney made his return after his foot injury. Aaron Lennon also came on and eventually, England found the break through when Beckham put a stunning cross onto Crouch's head. The game was finally made safe in the last minute when Gerrard hit a left footed drive into the top corner.
So there we are. 2 awful performances but 6 points from the first 2 games which is the first time England have done that in any tournament since 1982. Next up is Sweden on Tuesday in Cologne. A 9pm kick-off coupled with a friends birthday means is going to be a very drunk affair. Just as well really as the game has 0-0 written all over it. The Swedes need a point, we need to avoid defeat to win the group. We have a negative manager and they are without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovich.
Monday, June 12, 2006
The atmosphere in Frankfurt
For England's first Group B match in the FIFA 2006 World Cup, I flew in Frankfurt the afternoon before the game to 'sample the atmosphere' which is a very weak euphanism for getting drunk.Due to FIFA's criminally low allocation to competing teams only 5,000 of the stadiums 48,000 seats would be filled by official England fans. The reality was that over 30,000 England supporters were in the ground. Most of these had probably never seen England play football in their life so there were plenty of England fans left in Frankfurt to watch the game on the big screens.
I landed just before 4pm and my first job was to pick up tickets from both FIFA and the English FA. The stadium is very close to the airport so we drove to the ticket collection point - big queues to stuff that, I'll get them later. The English FA ticket collection point was right over the other side of town. The driver found it easily enough and we chatted a little about football. After I got my set of priceless match tickets it was off to the hotel and then off to find the lads to get drunk.
We had planned to meet in an Aussie bar slightly off the beaten track. In general, we try to keep away from the popular places like the Irish and English bars. They are always packed and are targets for anyone looking to start trouble with English fans. When I got to the Aussie Bar (called Yours), a couple of my friends we already there. The opening match between Germany and Costa Rica was on, naturally we wanted Germany to lose but they let us down. Poland v Ecuador was next and that was a much better result for us with Ecuador winning 2-0. None of the teams in Group A particularly concern me as potential opposition but it would be preferable to play Ecuador or Costa Rica and with Ecudor's victory, the chances of playing them look good if we can win the group.
The atmosphere was incredibly friendly in the Aussie Bar and on the streets. There were people from many countries - England, Trinidad, Togo, Australia, France, USA, Paraguay, Mexico and others which I managed to forget due to alcohol. We spent a lot of time talking to the Aussie supporters who had flown over from Melbourne. There is huge sporting rivalry between Australia and England and we had a lot of good natured banter on both Friday and Saturday nights. Looking at the BBC website earlier today, it seems a couple of them managed to get their photos taken which you can see here.
As the night wore on, we moved from the Aussie Bar to one of the streets line with beer tents where more people were mingling. It really was a good night with thousands of happy people enjoying the greatest show on earth.
The 3pm start on Saturday meant an early start. We met up back at the Aussie bar for breakfast having missed it at the hotel. Just under 7 Euros for all you can eat buffet breakfast seemed like that way forward although I managed to keep off the beer for a while. This meant I would see the game against Paraguay with a clear head, a mistake I don't intend to make again. Some of the lads hadn't made it out on the Friday night depending on their travel plans. We decided to make our way over to the stadium at about 1pm, 2 hours before kickoff as 48,000 people tend to put a bit of a strain on public transport.
There had been a lot of talk about the security and ID checks so we weren't sure what to expect there either - quite a few of us suspected that it was just hype as FIFA are the biggest touts of the lot so there is no way the checks would be too strict. We took a very full train to the stadium which only took a few minutes and then it was a 7 or 8 minute walk to the entrance. The first security check was to take away plastic bottles. The official reason is so they can't be thrown on the pitch but the real reason was to force people to buy the beverages inside the ground. Once through the brief search, it was on to the electronic ticket reader. I just put the ticket into the machine and the gate opened. No ID checks or anything like that - more hype.
I won't go through the match as much has already been written but we left on 83 minutes, as Hargreaves came on. We'd seen enough and wanted to get back out to "sample the atmosphere", if you get my meaning. A quick stop at my hotel to ditch my camera, a quick shower and it was out again to watch 2 interesting games involving Sweden in one and Argentina in the other. We grabbed some food in the Aussie bar which some very noisy Aussie who thought they could outsing us.......they couldn't. Our version of Waltzing Matilda is much better !!!!
The rest of the night was just drinking and merriment. I'd heard some bad things about Frankfurt before I went there. It was meant to be a dull industrial city but we had a great time, one of the best England trips I can remember.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Don't believe the hype
Like any major event, the World Cup attracts huge sponsorship which takes tickets away from the real fans and as a result, too many people in the stadium know nothing about the game. Most of them are faceless and for some strange reason need to have trees near their seats to watch the game but I was in Frankfurt on Saturday to witness England v Paraguay in the opening match in Group B and I can name 2 of these people.
The first person was Mexican Marco Rodriguez and unfortunately he was the referee. Now we have been lead to believe that all referees have taken part in fitness tests and exams covering laws of the game into order to be selected. Clearly there are 2 Marc Rodriguez and the one we saw was a donkey. I can't remember the last time I saw a ref who was so fussy and made some very basic mistakes in the laws of the game. I can't remember the last time I saw a goal keeper pulled up for taking more than 6 seconds to release the ball out of his hands, or when so many throw ins were given to the opposition for being taken in the wrong place. However the best decision (and by best I mean bewildering) was when a clearance by Paul Robinson hit to stupid corporate football for retards TV hanging over the centre of the pitch from the roof (more on this later). The whistle goes straight away and Rodriguez gives a drop ball. I must say, I didn't realise that FIFA had introduced a drop ball when their advert screens interfered with play. I thought (and so did many others), that the game should just continue. But this was only the start of it. The diving and cheating by the South Americas went unpunished yet Crouch gets booked for being persistently fouled. The one good thing is that we won't have him taking control of another of our games.
So onto the second person to be named who was in the stadium and knew nothing about football. Step forward Sven-Goran Eriksson, highly paid manager of the England team. Several years ago, the powers that be in England created football academies which would help develop our young players into the cream of world football. Players like Owen, Rooney, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard etc would suggest that the academies have done their job. We have the finest crop of players anyone can ever remember. So why on earth have we picked a timid, tactical dinosaur who isn't even English to oversee all this talent. Things started well with us scoring a a goal from a set piece after just 3 minutes. So there we are. Paraguay are in disarray losing their keeper with injury, we are a goal up so the nerves have been settled in front of 30,000 England fans. This should end up as a comfortable victory. The rest of the first half was OK but going in at half-time, the players needed a bit of rocket to force the pace and kill the game off. Instead, it just got worse and worse and in typical fashion we end up defending a 1-0 lead showing little interest to score a 2nd. Thankfully Paraguay weren't very good and we held on for the win. Now don't get me wrong, the 3 points are fantastic but this negative attitude is a huge cause for concern. WC 2002 in Japan, 1-0 up against Brazil and eventually lost 2-1. In the 2nd half when Brazil were down to 10 men, we didn't even manage a shot at goal. Euro 2004, 1-0 up against Portugal, Rooney gets clogged and we shut up shop again. On the other bench, Scolari takes off Figo and puts on Postiga who scores and we go on to lose on pens.
It's embarrassing considering the attacking talent we have. At the time he named the squad, I hammered the Swede for not taking 5 strikers. We've played just 1 game and it's already been shown why this is a mistake. As soon as his love-child Hargreaves came on, we were legging it out of the stadium. We'd seen enough. I'm just glad my ticket was only 35 Euros instead of the 850 Euros which was the going rate on the black market the previous night. The press conferences showed players and the manager giving excuses about 3 points being important and it the heat was a problem. Well excuse me, the heat didn't seem to be a problem in Manchester 7 days earlier when we beat Jamaica 6-0.
The game itself wasn't the most disappointment thing. The whole corporate crap is a joke. You can see from the photo I took that parts of the corporate entertainment areas had to have trees inside the stadium. Apart from the lake of atmosphere was the huge TV screen suspended from the roof over the centre of the pitch. Apart from interferring with the game (you remember Paul Robinson kicked the ball against it), it was just a brainwashing ad machine before the game. The annoying jingles only part of it but the worst thing came at half time. The first half highlights start running and Voiceover Man in his best German/US accent combined with incorrect terminology was the most pathetic thing I have ever had the misfortune to witness at a football match. What kind of moron goes to a World Cup match and needs to have commentary telling you what has just happened. You can just hear the conversation "I say, I'm sure I recognise the chap in the white shirt wearing number 7. Wasn't he in those Brylcream adverts?" Bastards !!!
Meanwhile, a number of my friends who have travelled to various friendly and qualifying matches either have to fork out Â850+ on a ticket or watch the game on a giant TV down by the river. Don't suppose we'll be seeing any of the prawn sandwich brigade in Macedonia on that Wednesday night next September for the Euro 2008 qualifier.
Roll on Nuremburg
Thursday, June 08, 2006
The Final Countdown
It’s been a busy week trying to sort out last minute bits and pieces before I head off to
However, many people I know are not so lucky and the corruption at the higher levels of the game doesn’t help the real fans much. Lets take the example of Trinidad & Tobago. All the tickets allocated to the T&T Football Federation were only available as part of a package from a company called Simpaul. As the tournament draws near, the T&T public haven’t snapped up the £2,500+ packages as quickly as was hoped for so this meant they had a load of tickets to shift.
England fans are never shy of taking tickets but if they wanted to buy tickets for T&T v England, they would also have to buy tickets for the other T&T games in Group B as well (Sweden and Paraguay). Now
After loads of phone calls, emails and no little panic, the tickets I needed have been sent via overnight courier so the Swedish lads could get them before heading off to
The big news tonight is that Wayne Rooney has flown back to
So tomorrow is my last full day at work. In between actually doing some work, emails will be flying around arranging meeting points in Frankfurt, discussions about the team and all the normal stuff as well as the small matter of expecting 2 lots of tickets to be delivered to pass on to some Swedish guys.
I leave work at
Monday, June 05, 2006
Sending off the team
What a send-off. 70,000 people were packed into Old Trafford to witness England score 6 goals against a very poor Jamacia team. It was men against boys as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick.....I repeat.....as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick (40-1 for the Golden Boot). The strange 2pm kick-off time was at the request of the BBC who wanted to cover some horse race as well.
After the first 45 minutes, the game was over as a contest as England led 4-0. We had started the game without the injured Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville as well as Ashley Cole and John Terry who had picked slight knocks. Apart from Rooney who has a scan on Wednesday, everyone else should be fine. Reports over the weekend said that Rooney had been kicking a ball in training which is the news all England fans wanted to hear. A fit White Pele is vital to our chances in the later stages of the tournament.
But onto more important and disturbing things. It raised it's ugly head against Hungary and was again with us on Saturday. I'm talking about Mexican Waves. Those hideous happy-clappy things crowds do when they aren't capable of creating a proper atmosphere. It started back in the World Cup in 1986 and has sadly caught on. For years 2 things have been unofficially banned from England games; Mexican waves and club shirts. We don't wear club colours to prevent division amongst fans due to club rivalries. We are all there to support England. We don't do Mexican Waves because we don't do something to comply. We are England fans, different from everyone else in the world. I remember in the ABSA Stadium, Durban in May 03 when the whole crowd was trying to get a 'wave' going. As it game round to our section, we booed and jeered. In short, Mexican Waves are gayer than Wales. We don't like them and we don't do them. Any England fan who says they like them have probably only been going to games for about 12 months.
4 days until I fly out, 5 days until our opening match !!!!!
Friday, June 02, 2006
With St George in my heart
Its just a week until the World Cup kicks off in Germany and I can't wait. Before then, we have one last friendly in Manchester against Jamaica tomorrow. Gary Neville has a slight hamsting strain so he may not play but it'll be the opportunity for us to give the team a send-off.
A feature of any England game is the number of flags on display. It's usually quite a battle (not literally) to get your flag in prime position. At tournaments, people are there 3 hours before the game and as soon as the gates open they run (yes, run) into the stands to put their flags up. I've done it before but now I'd sooner spend more time in the pub.
The issue of flag flying is starting to cause discussion in the UK. A number of companies, councils and other assorted do-gooders have been banning people from flying flags. Here are the ones I've found reported in the press recently:
- Tesco banned delivery drivers from displaying flags in their games (despite selling flags in their store) - the ban has since been over-turned
- Hampshire police have warned drivers that they could face assault charges if a flag flies off and hits a pedestrian (remember these a polyester flags)
- Cheltenham Council have banned taxi drivers from flying flags from their vehicles
- Construction workers at Heathrow terminal 5
- Birches Head High School in Stoke on Trent have banned pupils from wearing badges or carrying flags during the world cup (since overturned)
- Cable TV suppliers NTL have banned their drivers from having flags on their vehicles
- Taxi drivers in Blackpool have been banned from wearing England shirts
- Firemen in Barking have been banned from flying the flag from their station
Now it seems the football authorities are getting in on the act. A number of people at Old Trafford for the Hungary match were told to remove their flags from sponsorship boards. WHY !!!!!! It's our game, our flags and our stadium. Hopefully, good sense will prevail at tomorrows game.
