Kevin Whitcher
So, I worked out a good parking spot before heading off to St Etienne from my hotel half an hour away in Feurs. Only for some reason, my SatNav didn’t recognise St Etienne even existed, or maybe it did, but for some glitch decided to take me 100km south before turning back. I could see this before I even set out. So, being by nature an old fashioned map man, I took a screenshot of my hoped for destination on Google Maps and was able to work it out. All good. Parked up on the hilly side of town across the main road from the stadium and the 20 minute walk to get there did me the power of good.
St Etienne’s stadium has not really changed too much since I was last here in 1998. I watched Morocco eliminate Scotland and Holland draw with Mexico here 18 years ago. The seats have been replaced from basic wooden jobs to modern plastic versions. Rain threatened, and it did pour heavily for about five minutes once I was inside, but did not hang around. My seat was fairly low down in a corner sandwiched between the Iceland fans behind the goal and pitchside. I have to say I was impressed with the numbers that had travelled to support their country, and also the amount of noise they made. Interestingly, there were a lot more women and children amongst their contingent than you would normally see. It was like a lot of families had decided this was their holiday for the year. I have no idea of the Icelandic school calendar, but if school is not out yet, there are a number of youngsters that will be absent for a few days by the looks of things.
In sympathy with the Iceland fans either side of the area, even though it was a neutral zone, everyone stood up to watch the game. And in fairness, this was a good old fashioned real football stadium, so fair enough. However, my back tends to suffer if I stand for more than about 30 minutes continuously in the same spot, so this, combined with the fact the perspective on the pitch was not great – the equivalent of watching the game from the REDsection or family enclosure at Arsenal – meant I was scanning for empty seats with a better view where I could park my backside. I saw some on the opposite side of the stadium and decided to take my chances. A checkpoint between stands that was supposed to be manned was left vacant as the guy responsible had wandered a little to have a chat with a colleague. I walked through nonchalantly and I think he whistled a couple of times to stop me, but I didn’t look back and he didn’t bother running after me. I could not get round the back of the stand at the far corner, but was able to get to where I wanted to be inside the stand by using an emergency exit to access the stairways to the block I wanted to be in. I arrived in the seat of my choice with a cracking view just in time to see Nani put a header straight at the Iceland keeper.
Iceland started very well and initially impressed before Portugal took hold of the game. Generally, they chose to play it long, but at times mixed it up with some nice short passing. They were certainly no mugs and this was a lot more competitive than the Poland v Nortern Ireland match. Given that Hungary and Austria are the other two sides in this group, you couldn’t discount the Icelanders from progressing. Sure, Portugal created enough chances to win the game, but this was not as one-sided a match as many might have believed.
Granted, when Portugal did finally score, it felt like it had been coming, but in the second half, their opponents kept at it and got their just rewards. Cristiano Ronaldo had some attempts, the best a header straight at the keeper, but overall, he was kept a lot quieter than you might have expected. I think in the Real team, there are so many dangers that opponents cannot concentrate so much on denying him space. But at international level, his team-mates are not of the same standard. He can’t do it on his own and ultimately, he is now in decline as a footballer, his best years behind him. Even the free kicks don’t seem to come off so often anymore.
So a decent amount of drama and although Portugal were probably the better side, they didn’t make it count. And credit to the organisation of the Iceland team for that.
I try to give you a flavour of the non-football stuff in these pieces, so today, I am going to describe the “opening ceremony” that precedes each match. I would be surprised if they are showing this on TV back home as they don’t seem to here. Now of course, we had the full blown actual opening ceremony with David Guetta DJ-ing the tournament theme tune from the centre circle at the Stade de France last Friday night. But now, every match has to have what they describe as an opening ceremony. Gone are the days when the teams strolled out and we just had the national anthems. Mercifully for the players themselves, that is all they have to be out on the pitch for. But before they make their entrance, we have a choreographed routine on the pitch in which dozens of local schoolchildren are prancing around and lifting the two giant shirts of the countries playing as well as a circular tournament banner and giant letters to form the name of the host city. Sometimes there are entertaining aspects, such as the kid holding the final E of Marseille holding it upside down before someone told him to turn it the right way up, or one of the kids running around the Euro 2016 circular flag tripping up. Or failing that, there is the fascination of seeing teenage girls who have matured a little too much to be running around anywhere doing exactly that. Think of year 11 schoolgirls doing PE. There is something surreal about it. Not quite right, but somehow compelling. Now I understand the organisers should not be discriminatory, but there is a reason that – as a rule – women footballers are not of the ‘big mama’ physique. Because the days when the latter should be expected to do anything but walk are long gone.
Anyway, I digress. There is no need for this. Really. We are here to see an international football game. National anthems, yes. Opening ceremony? If you must do it, do it before the opening game, but not every single time. And this of course will become the standard now and doubtless seen at the next World Cup. Eventually, 22 guys will get on the field and kick a football, but until then, we have all of this.
I am writing this on the Thursday morning after actually having attended a further match. However, I will cover that in the next piece. Apologies for the delay, yesterday was a little too full to post anything.
