Kevin Whitcher
Monday 18th June 5.30am (Moscow)
My host Ivan Merc and I, having risen at the ungodly hour of 4.45am and taken a taxi to the train station, are sitting on a train about to make the journey to the airport to catch our return flight to St Petersburg. Over the tannoy at the station, the announcement was made that train journeys between the country’s host cities are free to those with a Fan ID, although apparently only for the matches for which you have a ticket. You need to buy a ticket in advance for the train from a special website, and Ivan reckons the journeys can be exceptionally long and the standard of comfort questionable. Of more use to us is the free travel on matchdays on the metro systems of both Moscow and St Petersburg. You present your Fan ID and match ticket at a particular gate and the person manning it scans a card he has and the glass barrier opens for you. Exiting the metro is like a lot of European cities, you just walk through a barrier without any need for a ticket. So that’s a plus, and it has to be said that the justification for the sometimes tortuous post-game exit process from the stadiums is that there is hardly any wait once you do reach the metro station. The trains are frequent and not overly packed, partly because there are police on the platform that, at a certain point, stop people trying to board. Being a bit of a chancer myself, there have been times on matchdays when I have mooted the possibility of short cuts to Ivan, but he is adamant that the police here are not noted for their tolerance, and they certainly look like an uncompromising bunch. I’ve not noticed anyone even attempting to chum up with them for a photo for example.
The weather yesterday (Sunday) was once again glorious in Moscow. After a relaxed morning at the hotel, we went into the centre so I could do the tourist bit. So here we are, Russia’s showpiece capital open to the world… except that Red Square was closed. Yup. You could go to a portcullis style gate and peer through the metal bars to get a distant view of the top of the famous Kremlin building, although a lot of the view was obscured by… wait for it… World Cup hospitality tents. Oh yes, FIFA owns Moscow, and Red Square is closed for business for the duration of the tournament. The area between the gate and the metro was swarming with people, including many supporters of Mexico and a lesser number from Germany. We took a stroll and Ivan gave me a flavor of the centre around the Kremlin complex (10km to stroll right around he told me). A mixture of impressive buildings of various vintage and wide roads. He noted that, as with St Petersburg, there seemed to be less people around than normal. Basically the locals have abandoned the city to head elsewhere for the duration of the tournament, in fear of being unable to function as normal. The irony of this is that the roads are less busy, as so many of them made the same choice.
We finished our mini-tour at the Arbat, a long pedestrianized shopping street where I bought some fridge magnets for the folks back home. We took a taxi to a place called Culture Park where Ivan had read we could take a shuttle bus to the Luzhniki stadium for our 6pm game. Ivan wanted me to experience some hair-raising Moscow taxi driving, but the driver was on the cautious side, so it was not thrill-a-minute stuff. Maybe he was relaxed because there was less traffic than normal. Once he dropped us at the Culture Park, a security guy there sent us to the metro station of the same name about 600 metres away across a bridge that spanned the river. We grabbed some late lunch in a café that was showing the Serbia v Costa Rica match, and left at half-time. It transpired at the metro that the shuttle buses were in fact departing from the Culture Park itself, so we ended up taking the metro rather than experimenting (and walking 600 metres back to where we’d started from). It was a good decision. Told to stay on the train for one more stop rather than get off at the main stadium station, because we were in the D stand, we were astonished on exiting to find the entrance within 20 metres of the metro. No long walk around the houses.
With no queue to speak of, we entered smoothly and walked directly to the stadium about 150 metres in front of us. The Luzhniki is surrounded by parkland, originally developed for the 1980 Olympic games and redeveloped for these finals. It is impressive in scale from the outside, and we could see it was a long way up to get to level six where our seats were.
We made our way up the several flights of stairs and bought a drink. As at the previous World Cup in Brazil, your drink is served with a collectors’ cup for the tournament and sometimes the match itself, depending what they have at the particular kiosk where you buy it. The only credit card accepted is Visa. Mastercard used to sponsor the World Cup a while back, and I suspect the arrangement applied then too, but now the boot is on the other foot. The fact that Budweiser is the only beer available is unfortunate, and also down to their sponsors’ status, but one develops a tolerance for the taste after a while. I have no idea why Americans seem to like it so much, compared to other lagers. I figure they make back some proportion of their investment to be one of FIFA partners through the sales at the games, and there is no doubt that a lot of beer is consumed. We were told at our first game in St Petersburg by a youth manning a soft drink kiosk that there was no alcohol available in the stadium. We took him at his word, although I was seriously surprised. I was under the impression that the Mexicans sitting next to me at the Iran v Morocco game were just idiots, but as it transpires they were actually p*ssed. It will be interesting to see what happens in Qatar in four and a half years’ time.
The Luzhniki stadium has a very different feel inside than from the days when it also served as an athletics venue. The interior has been completely rebuilt and it does now feel like a modern football venue. And as a place for the final, I’d say it is probably the best since (and I was not there to testify) the Azteca in 1986, or failing that the Bernabeu in 1982. I am talking about the rake of the stands and their closeness to the pitch. Generally, to ensure a large capacity, venues that have an athletics track host the final. These days they try and cover it with some green carpet or similar, but no-one’s fooled, especially those sitting a country mile behind the goal-lines.
I was actually pleasantly surprised with how close we were to the front of the upper tier, given we were on the highest level, although there were plenty of rows behind us. Watching the Serbia game when we had lunch earlier, Ivan told me the temperature in Samara is often 35 degrees in June, and I pointed out that I felt sorry for the section of the crowd that were getting the ellipse of sunlight over the stadium roof. As we took our seats, we discovered that it was now our turn to work on the lobster look, so much so that Ivan had to go and purchase a FIFA baseball cap at north of £20 from one of the licensed merchandise stalls.
We were in the Mexico end, but looking around the stadium, it seemed obvious that the Mexicans were in the significant majority, at least two to one against the German support. I ventured that they were probably saving their money for later rounds, but who knows? Mind you, the Mexicans always turn up in serious numbers to any World Cup anywhere that they have qualified for, and apparently invariably progress from the group stage. It will be interesting to see if the hot Russian weather continues, and whether or not that may help certain of the central American teams. We learned that Serbia had eventually beaten Costa Rica 1-0, so maybe not.
The type of supporter that attends the World Cup these days is not so much a diehard fan as the old days when tickets were reasonably priced and easier to pick up, such as in Italy in 1990. They seem to be there more for an experience which includes constant trips during the game to stock up on drinks. I have to say I do not think I have ever stood up to allow so many individuals through in 90 minutes as I did yesterday. And often the same ones. So you had people making trips four times during the game to buy beer. And some of them were supporting Mexico. This is your country at the World Cup. Why take a chance of missing a key moment? Ivan espoused that what the fans of the particular teams taking part in the game might actually come to experience is the feeling of mass communion and togetherness that an international football match at a major finals can bring, and I can see an element of truth in that. But the constant trips for food and drink while the match is on I cannot get my head around. You fly halfway across the world to see your team play, then maybe miss a goal because you are buying a hot dog. It would make more sense if I, as a relative neutral, were doing it, but even then, I’ve paid good money for this ticket to see a game of high stakes football, not queue for a lager of questionable quality.
Some Arsenal interest on the pitch anyway, in the form of Mesut Ozil. I watched him closely to see if he does anything different to what he does for his club. He plays as very much a link man, playing short stabby passes, spraying the ball around, moving on possession, waiting for the moment that a killer ball is on. He played two or three such passes in the duration of the game, but none came off. Where he became unstick was the ability of Mexico’s defence to track runners and close down gaps. They defended very well overall. Former Arsenal forward Carlos Vela started for Mexico, and to these eyes, did not do too much. No matter, his team-mates compensated, playing counter attacking football which, during the course of the game resulted in them having generally better opportunities that the Germans. It was a bit of a shock to see such an array of attacking quality as the World Cup holders could boast be nullified. Another surprise was the appearance from the bench of Rafa Marquez, wheeled out for another tournament. Arsenal fans may remember this guy from his cynical display next to Carlos Puyol in the Barcelona defence in the 2006 Champions League final, in which the pair, in tandem with Marc van Bommel, more or less kicked Thierry Henry out of the game. He’s 39 years old now, and has equalled the record for having appeared at the most finals for any player – five in all.
So Mexico won 1-0, although I am certain the Germans will recover and quite possibly return to this stadium in the knockout round. It’s difficult to retain the World Cup though. The last team to manage it were Brazil over 50 years ago. It’s strange how a team that wins it can often disappoint four years on, but then again, that is a long time in football. And of course there can be geographical factors, such as those that faced England in 1970, when many would argue they had a better team than in 1966.
One surprise was that supporters in the upper tiers were not kept in at the end of the game for a change. There were no doors at the block exits to close, although a line up of police with batons could have been used if the policy were in place. The route to the nearest metro station was blocked off, so we were all sent to the main stadium metro station, although in truth, at the end of the 15 minute walk there was no delay. And the walk wasn’t the worst, with a good deal of woodland behind the massed ranks of police ensuring we didn't stray off the route.
We got back to the hotel just in time to see the final game of the day between Brazil and Switzerland kick off. More Arsenal interest in the shape of Granit Xhaka and Swiss captain Stephan Lichtsteiner. Xhaka did nothing of note that I could recall, although our new right back was far more heavily involved. Marcelo was the Brazil captain, rather than Thiago Silva, and I noted that there seem to be a lot of Real Madrid players who are captains for their countries. Ramos for Spain, Ronaldo for Portugal, Modric for Croatia, Navas for Costa Rica and now Marcelo. Is Gareth Bale the Wales captain? I’d imagine he probably is. Varane isn’t for France, but then again, he’s still relatively young. Benzema of course, can’t get anywhere near his country’s squad due to a previous blackmail scandal.
As for the game, a cracking goal from Coutinho seemed to set us up for more Brazilian magic, but it wasn’t to be. Switzerland equalized from a corner with a no nonsense header which reminded us that when it comes to defending, Brazil are not the best. The policy, historically, has generally to be to outscore the opposition and not worry too much about conceding the odd goal. But it didn’t work last night.
I have to admit to nodding off at moments during the second half, after a fair amount of walking around during the day. The World Cup experience can be exhausting. Once full time came around, and given I would be up less than six hours later, it didn’t take too long for me to hit the sack. Halfway through my Russia 2018 trip, although I’ve seen all the stadiums I am going to, and have only one match remaining. Still, the next three days will be more relaxed, and a nice wind down before retuning home on Thursday. I arrived in Russia four days ago. We have packed so much in that it seems much longer.
Strange to think that of the favourites, only France have actually won a game, although if you include Belgium in with Spain, Argentina, Germany and Brazil, they still have to play. Early days though. More often than not, the usual suspects are hanging around at the business end of things.
More tomorrow after a relaxed day once we reach St Petersburg, and of course England’s opener in the evening.
