{"id":32,"date":"2006-07-04T11:57:47","date_gmt":"2006-07-04T09:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/archives\/32"},"modified":"2006-07-04T11:57:47","modified_gmt":"2006-07-04T09:57:47","slug":"dreams-die-in-gelsenkirchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/archives\/32","title":{"rendered":"Dreams die in Gelsenkirchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

km 4700<\/em><\/p>\n

Life of Riley, Ready to Go, Three Lions, Vin-da-loo, I’m listening to all the classic songs on the train from Koln to Gelsenkirchen. In a few hours England will take on Portugal in a World Cup Quarter Final in the AufSchalke Arena and the nerves are starting to build. This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day, a chance to watch your country in the last eight of a major tournament. Time to change trains as we pull into Oberhausen, the platform is a sea of red and white, the St George Cross is everywhere. Onto the Gelsenkirchen train and The first chants of “Eng-er-land, Eng-er-land” ring through the carriages. It’s really starting to build up now.<\/p>\n

My mind drifts back to the day before. We had seen a classic match up of football superpowers in Germany v Argentina. I’d travelled up with Dirk to watch the game in Koln, with an old Barcelona friend of ours, Uli. This time we skipped the packed out madness of the FanFest, not wanting to queue from midday in the intense summer sun. Instead we went on a lakeside biergarden in one of the Koln parks, a long rambling series of little tents and shades with big screens and TV’s stuck under with them. Almost everyone sporting the red, white and yellow colours. This time though there was a lot of realism mixed in the optimism. People knew that this was step up from the rest of the tournament. And from there, drinking the local brew of ‘Kolsch’ we watched a classic unfold.<\/p>\n

From the start, after some early niggles, Argentina were dominating the midfield, Tevez especially causing problems down the left flank. The only time Germany looked at all dangerous was when Ballack powered a header over the bar. The fans around me were already getting nervous, getting excited at the smallest bit of positive German play. The few times Germany did get forward, the Argentines were then just taking the pace out of the game by playing keep ball. Half time came with no goals, and everyone knew it was going to be a long tense game. The second half kicked off with the news that the ‘super fan’ Maradona wasn’t in the stadium.<\/p>\n

Then everyone had their heads in their hands as Ayala powered in a header to give Argentina a 1-0 lead. I thought that was it for the German ‘train’. Argentina kept coming forward and cutting through the German defence but without being able to make a final ball. Then slowly but surely Germany started to edge back into it, a series of set pieces enabling them to put pressure on the Argentine defence. Into the last twenty then fifteen minutes and there were shrieks and screams coming at any half chance at either end. The TV showed a shot of the Beckenbauer looking very nervous. A few chants of “Deutschland, Deutschland” came out, but they were pretty half hearted. Then as we hit the last ten minutes a flicked on cross was met by Klose and it was 1-1. The biergarden erupted! A nervous last few minutes, and a shot of ‘The Kaiser’ smiling again and we were into extra-time.<\/p>\n

Extra time produced nothing, except tense nervous football and a couple of half chances, the most notable being Coloccinis cross shot almost catching Lehmann out as it clipped the bar. And so it was onto Penalties. I turned and asked five different fans around me. “Will you win the penalty shoot out??” Each one gave an emphatic “Yes!”. And of course they did, banging in four confident spot kicks, leaving Lehmann to take the plaudits as he saved two. Such confidence from the players AND the fans. I wondered then how it would be the next day if England came to that point. Would i be so confident if asked the same question??<\/p>\n

Thinking on this as the train pulls into Gelsenkirchen, I’m quietly confident that’s not going to happen. After all we’re playing against a Portuguese team with two main players missing, suspended after the mini war against Holland, it’s going to be tough, but this is the quarter final of the World Cup, this is when we raise our game!<\/p>\n

We’re ushered off the train and out through the station amongst hordes of England Fans, northern, southern, scouse, manc, geordie accents, all mixed in together. We even see a couple of English Bobbies there! Bloody good idea that, they’ve been brought over to work with the German police, they have all the information about getting to the ground or the FanFest and can communicate it to our fans in English. The station announcements are also broadcast in English (with a distinctly London accent!). The odd group of Portugese fans march through as well, there chanting very distinct from the familiar English terrace songs that are ringing out.<\/p>\n

We meet up with Frank, whose just come down from Berlin after seeing the game there the day before. He’s pretty wrecked after making an 800km round trip and partying half the night away after the German victory. Dirk is pulling for England today, he wants a classic England v Germany final in Berlin. Frank is still not sure. After stopping for a good lunch in a local bar we then head off to catch the stadium tram with plenty of time left. We don’t want any of the last minutes worries we had in Dortmund! <\/p>\n

Then, for about the first time in the tournament, German efficiency fails us. The central tram stop is rammed with people. Every time they send a tram through there’s a huge crush of people trying to force there way on. so if you aren’t right next to a door you’ve got no hope of getting on. Finally we manage to get on one, but after only a few minutes it stops, the driver mumbles something in German, and we all have to get off apparently it’s broken down. Luckily at that moment a stadium bus passes us by, so we hop on it, and within ten minutes we’re in sight of the AufSchalke Arena.<\/p>\n

A big blue modern stadium this one, sticking out clearly from the grey industrial buildings that are typical of the area. It’s one of the most modern all purpose arenas in Europe, seating almost 60,000 with a roof that can be closed and a pitch that can be moved in and out of the stadium. Getting off the bus we find out we’re on the other side from our section, in order to get through we find ourselves taking a short cut down a very steep piece of grass. Highly amusing watching some ‘barrel-chested’ tattooed England fans charging headlong down it, totally out of control. Luckily they make it ok, although they almost take Dirk out at the end of it!<\/p>\n

A call from my father back in England, they’re all getting nervous back there too. Time to get into the Stadium. We’d officially changed the names on the tickets a few days before the game, which turns out to be a good move as on the way through the stadium security are taking aside a fair proportion of the fans to be questioned as to where they got the tickets. Some lads are looking particularly gutted, hope they make it through. <\/p>\n

Finally up to our block, and into the stadium, 15 minutes before kick off. A grand bowl like arena greets us, the seats blue in the colours of local team FC Schalke. Today they’ve closed the roof for TV purposes, creating an enclosed atmosphere. We’ve got excellent seats again, right behind the goal. Away in the other corner of the ground is the main cluster of Portuguese fans, the rest of the stadium must be almost 90% red and white. Whatever people might say about England fans, they must be the top in terms of the sheer numbers that follow the country. The whole facade of the top tier of the stadium is draped with banners, the vast majority a St Georges cross with a proud club name blazoned across it. The odd Portugal flag as well, and away to the left, one Mexican flag. These Mexicans, they get everywhere!<\/p>\n

The chants start to ring out as we come closer to kick off. Then the stadium announcer welcomes the teams, and here they come, Becks and Figo leading them out onto the pitch to a wall of noise. First national anthem is “God Save the Queen”, proudly sang. Then, most heartening, a respectful silence as the Portuguese Anthem is played. The teams break off, the captains elect to change ends, we’ll have England kicking towards us during the first half. A deep breath … here we go …<\/p>\n

The first half passes by surreally, quick yet slow, like tumbleweed in the wind, no real chances as the teams cancel each other out. We all know that England are going to have to raise their performance considerably in this game, yet we show no sign of doing so. Eriksson has persisted with the formation that leaves Rooney alone up front, which means that he’s just getting kicked and frustrated, it’s not his natural game. The England band sparks up after around 20 minutes, “Great Escape”, “Come on England” and “God Save the Queen”, seem about the limit of their repertoire. Good effort though, and the crowd gets behind them. The German guy sitting next to me is getting a little narky about me getting up and singing “England, England” all the time. Well screw you mate, this is my country playing !<\/p>\n

Half time comes and it’s all pretty inconclusive, there’s been no real incidents in the game. Joe Cole’s doing ok, and Owen Hargreaves is having one of his best games in an England shirt. But poor old Frank Lampard’s having another mare. Needs something special to spark it to life. Rooney maybe ? On the plus side, Portugal haven’t really done anything either. Although there players are falling down like feathers. Dirk has the thankless task of queuing for the half time beer, which is apparently pumped through 52 kilometres (or something like that!) of pipes that run around the stadium. Apparently they lose thousands of litres every summer when they have to clear the pipes out in the off-season.<\/p>\n

Second Half, and no changes, Rooney is still up there on his own. And then a few minutes in Beckham goes down. Captain Fantastic is not in a good way, you can see straight away, and within moments he’s hobbling off to be replaced by Aaron Lennon. Our talismanic captain is out. How are we going to react? Well pretty positively actually. Suddenly Rooney is supported by someone a little more ‘forward’ like, there’s a bit more space around and we’re starting to look a bit more threatening. <\/p>\n

Then disaster … Rooney is involved in a little tussle for the ball around the centre circle, looks like nothing like where we’re from, maybe a foul for us, then suddenly there’s a Portuguese player down, and a group of red shirts clustered around the referee and the white shirt of Rooney. It’s all confusion as the referees wanders round the other side of the melee and pulls a red card from his pocket. Rooney’s off!! It’s all happened so fast, as he traipses off the pitch we see him kick a water bottle towards the Portuguese bench in frustration. There’s no replays in the stadium for ‘controversial’ issues, so we really don’t know what’s happened. I fire a quick text off to Mike in England to find out. Quite bizarre really, sending a text 2000 km’s to find out what’s happened 100 metres away from me !<\/p>\n

Sven has to switch it, and Peter Crouch is on for Joe Cole. Come on Crouchy ! But now we know it’s backs to the wall stuff. The text comes back from Mike. “He stamped on the player, but looks like an accident to me” Portugal are the team pressing now, the midfield is theirs as they work the ball from side to side, looking for a gap. But we’re holding firm, each attack seeing the ball cleared up towards Crouch, the only one up there. And Crouchy, the Brazilian like player that he is, is doing a great job of getting the ball and holding it up, allowing us precious breathing space. The English fans are right behind the team, “England” chants reverberate round the stadium. What is very frustrating is the ease with which the Red shirts of Portugal are going down now, any contact around the box and they’re over. Ronaldo is being particular annoying, and he was really involved in Rooney’s sending off. The clock ticks down, ten minutes to go now, it’s getting nervy out there, a few crosses float in from the Portuguese left, they always seem to have a man over there, but they come to nothing. And at the other end we force a couple of throw-ins in deep positions. Suddenly Aaron Lennon is flattened in the Portuguese area. “Penalty!!” I cry with another 30,000 English voices. Nothing from the referee though. We’re all whistling and telling him “Your not fit to referee”, and other more choice insults. Text from Mike, “Not a Penalty”. The whistle blows, 90 minutes is up. we’ve held out, now it’s another 30 minutes. We discuss the spectre of penalties, which is looming large now, I’m actually confident we could pull it off this time, because of our backs to the wall performance. <\/p>\n

Frank & Dirk wish me good luck, they’re really behind England now after the Portuguese antics. Extra time starts off, and it’s more of the same, Portugal pressing, England defending, and then getting the ball away and up to Crouchy or Lennon. Still Portugal aren’t really creating any clear chances. The break comes and goes, only 15 minutes to go now, penalties are just round the corner. Then a cross in from the left and the balls in the back of Robinsons net, but it’s ok, it’s ok, the linesmans flag is up. We breath again. An England break, Gerrard has the ball. From where we are we can see Hargreaves making a great run into acres of space on the right, but instead he hits it to the opposite side where Lampard can’t make anything of it. That would of been a real good chance had he hit it to the other flank. Carragher comes on for Lennon, must be thinking about the penalties. Very, very nervous now, any Portuguese attack is almost too much to bear, we’re all screaming for the whistle. Finally it comes. Penalties.<\/p>\n

Sven and McClaren are out there sorting out the kickers, as we contemplate who might take them, two near certainties in Beckham and Rooney are already off the pitch. I repeat my thought that this time we’re gonna win it, although not with quite the same conviction as before. The referee flips the coin to see where we’ll take them, and they’re coming to our end. I will have a perfect view of England’s success or demise. Text from Mike “Can’t watch it”. Portugal are shooting first. Robinson and Ricardo wish each other luck below us. Lots of noise from our fans as their man steps up … and hammers it past Robinson. Shit. 1-0. Up strides Franky Lampard. Come on Frank, knock it in. Saved. Lots of heads in hands around me, apart from a couple of Portugese guys celebrating down from us. Frank (the German one not Lampard!) tells me, “You’re still in it Robin, don’t worry”. Yeah Frank, but your German, we’re English. We’ve been here before, the scripts written. <\/p>\n

But it isn’t! The next Portuguese penalty hits the post and cannons joyously out to the left hand side ! Yesssss! We’re still in it. Whose stepping up now. Owen Hargreaves, he’s had a great game. And he rams his penalty into the corner. 1-1. Come on ! Portugal are up again, and it’s pure ecstasy as the next red shirt knocks the ball penalty wide left as well. Wild wild celebrations in the stands, I jump on Frank, the place is exploding. We’re gonna do it! Stevie Gerrard steps up. This is super Gerrard, captain Liverpool, our top scorer in the competition, the man you turn to in a crisis. I’m on the steps of the walkway by the stand now, i need some room to celebrate. Gerrard steps up to put England ahead.<\/p>\n

Saved. Ricardo guessed right. Still 1-1, two penalties missed each. The familiar scenario is returning. It’s affecting the fans now, there’s hardly any noise now as the fourth Portugal penalty flies in. I don’t really want to watch any more as Jamie Carragher walks up. Head down he turns and knocks the ball confidently past Ricardo! But no, the referees ordering it to be retaking. Why? Why? Why? Carragher looks nervous now as he puts the ball on the spot. And Ricardo flies out to his right to parry it onto the bar. It’s all written now as that twat Ronaldo walks up and arrogantly jumps up and down on the penalty spot before placing the ball. He steps up and calmly puts it away to Robinsons left.<\/p>\n

It’s over. England are out. There’s not gonna be a dream ending to this world cup. I go back to my seat in the stand, the emotion of the moment and the game is pretty tough to take. There’s something about watching all this live that brings the pain home, the reality is right there in front of your eyes. Forget the fact that the team hasn’t been playing well, that Sven screwed up the squad selection, and all that. This is now, the moment that your country has been dumped out of the world cup on penalties yet again. It hurts. I see vaguely away to the left the Portuguese players celebrating with their fans, all round the rest of the stadium are England fans just staring into space, all of them gutted. I’m not alone. The England players make a sorrowful circuit, we all rise to applaud them. They gave there all today, but it wasn’t enough.<\/p>\n

As we make our way out of the stadium and back towards Gelsenkirchen, the pain starts to recede, reality kicks in, i mean we really weren’t good enough to win this world cup. The fans on the way back are all gutted but saying the same thing. Who knows if a different coach or strategy would have changed the day. <\/p>\n

The city centre in Gelsenkirchen is packed with semi-drunk Englishmen, it looks like the West End of San Antonio in Ibiza. But it’s a good atmosphere, not really any threat of big trouble, just a lot of drunk people enjoying their last day out in the tournament. We manage to find a bar with a TV where, a little disbelievingly, we watch the French kick the Brasilians out of the tournament. It’s not just England who’ve had a bad day.<\/p>\n

Then it’s onto the station, a packed concourse, we manage to get on our train and get seats, and it’s home, or at least to the hostel in Koln, away from the Gelsenkirchen memories. <\/p>\n

———————————————————————————<\/p>\n

Well that was a lot longer than I expected ! Wanted to try out a bit of a different writing style there, as if it’s all in the present. Thought it was the best way to and get across the feelings from inside the stadium. Despite us losing it really was a great day.<\/p>\n

But I have to comment on the penalties again. Just watching the two shootouts and contrasting England and Germany and the resepective national psyche. All the Germans were totally confident, and i mean the fans here, not the players. Yet the normal reaction for England fans is, unsurprisingly “Oh no, not again!”. And that really came home in the stadium as well. Frank, who was at the German v Argentina game, said the noise when the Argentines were taking their penalties was incredible. Contrast that with the Schalke Arena, where the vast majority were English fans, it was almost like a home game. The noise for the first Portuguese penalty was loud, but after that there was really not too much. It was as if the first English penalty miss took away all the confidence from us. That’s certainly what happened to me, i was already resigned to defeat after Lampards miss. Even though it then swung to our favour, the confidence had gone. When that feeling is replicated 30,000 times round the stadium it must get to the players as well.<\/p>\n

So anyway today is the first Semi Final, Germany v Italy. The big thing here in Germany is that Torben Frings has been suspended for throwing a punch in the brawl after the Argentina game. He’s been one of their most influential players over the last few games, so it’s a real blow. And it seems that the Italian media have forced the issue by sending tapes of the incident to FIFA. The German media are mad about it, it’s really stoked up the atmosphere before the game.<\/p>\n

And I’m finding myself in the very strange position of wanting Germany to win this game. With England crashing out, i really would like to see the hosts make it to the final, the atmosphere in Berlin would be incredible. Also the people have been fantastic hosts throughout the whole month, they’ve thrown country and culture open to everyone. I think a lot of English people who’ve followed the country or tournament round feel the same as well, everyone’s had a great time here. As to them winning the whole thing, I’m still not sure, but the other options of Italy, Portugal or the French aren’t particularly appealing either !<\/p>\n

Today am leaving ‘Base Camp Langen’ and will head up to Dirks hometown, Marburg, north of Frankfurt. Then on Wednesday or Thursday we’ll make the final push to the summit as we head to Berlin ready for the World Cup Final. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

km 4700 Life of Riley, Ready to Go, Three Lions, Vin-da-loo, I’m listening to all the classic songs on the train from Koln to Gelsenkirchen. In a few hours England will take on Portugal in a World Cup Quarter Final in the AufSchalke Arena and the nerves are starting to build. This sort of thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic-fish.com\/magicpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}