Kevin Whitcher
So we are now onto Thursday. The day of the England v Wales game, which kicked off at 2pm in the UK. I wonder how much work was done that afternoon? As the game was on pay TV here in France, I met up with an old Parisian friend in a sports bar not too far from Notre Dame to catch up. She is not a football fan, so I got there an hour before kick off to secure a seat and do the social thing before the game started. She lasted half an hour, but my attention that time was on the screen.
England dominated and deserved the win. Interesting that it needed Woy Hodgson to change Kane and Sterling to get the two scorers on the pitch. Sure they left it late, but a win’s a win. Wales still have a solid three points behind them, although it is all to play for in the final round of games. Obviously we have 24 teams for the first time this tournament. And are playing 36 matches just to get shot of 8 of them before the tournament starts for real with the knockout rounds. It was only 1992 when a team needed to play five matches to win the tournament. Now, like the World Cup, seven are required. However, one thing I will say. The four teams that will make the last 16 by finishing third in the group does mean that the group matches still, I think, will be meaningful right to the end. So no dead rubbers because someone does not think they have any chance of qualifying. I might have that wrong, but time will tell.
I guess an argument against is it that, with some teams, once they have a win under their belt, they might think they only have to avoid defeat in the next two matches to ensure qualification, which would probably be right. There have certainly been a few tight matches so far. Few teams have looked really out of their depth here. I did not see Northern Ireland play Ukraine after the England v Wales draw, but I can only conclude their performance was a big improvement on that I witnessed against Poland. At the time of writing (the Saturday evening before the Portugal v Austria game) only two teams have failed to get anything from their opening two matches – Albania (who have been unlucky) and Ukraine (who I have not really watched at all so cannot comment). In theory they could both still finish third in their respective groups, but it would take a lot for Ukraine to finish as one of the best four third placed teams.
The other thing which makes me far from the ideal person to judge the quality of the tournament is that I am seeing so few of the matches that I am not physically attending. I remember people saying they thought the World Cup 2010 in South Africa was a poor one, and yet I had the time of my life being there, thought it was great. If I was sat at home in front of the box, I would almost certainly have a different perspective. I do think we could do with a bit more drama, a couple more see-saw high scoring matches. It does sound like Croatia v Czech Republic last night turned into quite a game with the flares, Mark Clattenburg taking the teams off the pitch and the late equalising penalty. I didn’t see any of it though!
So let’s talk about a game that definitely qualifies as pretty dull and that was my visit to the Stade de France to watch Germany face Poland. It was the first time I had returned since that particular evening in 2006 which all Gooners would probably prefer to forget. And unlike the Parc des Princes, for some reason, the security checkpoints were the same as at stadiums outside the capital – no extra police checkpoints, which was a surprise given the incident here last November during France’s friendly against Germany. Then again, the attempt to get a bomb into the stadium was foiled by the stadium’s standard security searches then, so fair play to the French for that.
Inside, yes, the stadium is a football pitch with an athletics track around the edge job (albeit the track covered by blue carpet), but it is still a pretty impressive venue, 18 years on from its first use. I’m surprised another Champions League final has not taken place here since 2006, but then again, they did have two in seven years, with hosting the 2000 final as well.
Both Germany and Poland brought huge (and vociferous) support with them. Generally, I would have to say that the numbers of travelling fans for all countries seems to be on the increase. I think this is partly due to the way the tickets are now distributed. Aside from very generous (and rightly so) numbers handed over to the Football Associations of the respective countries, the fact that locals do not seem to get priority when it comes to allocations of neutral seats means that more fans of the two competing countries are picking them up in any ballots held after the draw has been made. What it does lead to is a lot of areas where the fans are a real mix of the two sides and neutrals. And I am pleased to report that I have not seen any fights breaking out as a consequence. Certainly a bit of banter, but not fisticuffs. The invasion of a neutral section by Russian fans after the Marseille game was a case of them targeting England fans who happened to be in it (granted a large majority). But there was no fighting as such between Russians and England fans in the neutral section during the game. And chances are that the Russian ultras would have got their tickets through the Russian FA rather than needing to buy in the neutral section. And frankly, if by any chance they had tickets in neutral areas, they would have gravitated towards the Russian section where, from what I could see, no-one was bothered about who was in the right seat in the front few rows as they were all standing and crowding the front.
So back to the game. And here was a case of two sides with a win under their belt probably quite confident of going through and effectively playing to see who wins the group. And there weren’t too many clear cut chances in what was not an entertaining game of football. Poland had by far the better opportunities that there were and should have won the game. I spent much of the time on Mesut Ozil watch. The player was tidy, but generally ineffective. He had one decent strike at goal which forced a good save from Lukas Fabianski (who had replaced Szczesny in goal for some reason – rotation?). But apart from that this was a game on which he failed to have much in the way of influence. I guess we have all seen a few of those.
I got some texts and during the game before the game from Alex, the legendary Gooner seller, who was in attendance at the corresponding match in the group in Nice between Northern Ireland and Ukraine. It had kicked off three hours before the one I was attending. He had picked up a category 1 seat, which was close to the VIP section. He told me at half time he strolled in and helped himself to free food and drink, gift and programme and no-one batted an eyelid. He did have an old Champions League pass round his neck that he partially zipped up under a jacket (the guests on freebies need to wear a pass round their necks as you might have seen on the box when they pan the VIP section), which might have fooled anyone not checking properly. He returned after the game to enjoy more hospitality. Well played that man. He did also mention the fact that the game was stopped for a few minutes due to a downpour of biblical proportions which included hailstones. It was Lyon where I got completely soaked getting off the tram. So the rain seems to be spreading around. There have been sunny days, and the weather in Paris in the evening of my match was fine. But there has been plenty of cloud and rain. Not at all what I expected of France in June. I remember a couple of dull days in 1998, but overall, it was glorious.
To conclude on Germany v Poland though, when all is said and done, a disappointing no score bore. But another stadium ticked off the list. More tomorrow. I know I am well behind with this, but in truth, aside from all the travelling and getting to matches, I do have a bit of other work to do, so am just trying to juggle time a bit. Hope I am giving you a flavour of what it is like to be out here.
