Fun in Frankfurt - 100 up!

So, my 100th England game, James' first trip to a World Cup tournament - excitement was high as we boarded Eurotunnel on Friday morning. The drive across Europe on a beautiful summer's day was filled with fellow England fans making the journey. Flags attached to cars, displayed in the rear windscreen - like ours - or flying proudly from the roofs of the various modes of transport. Bikes, motorhomes, people carriers and even winnebagos in various states of (dis)repair all heading to Frankfurt. Horns beeping and fans waving to each other on the road.

Border controls were in place as we reached Germany and in a moment of positive discrimination, my presence in the car meant we were waved straight through, compared with the cars full of all male parties who were pulled over and checked.

We were staying just outside Frankfurt in the beautiful spa town of Bad Homburg. We announced our arrival in slightly embarrassing fashion, walking through the courtyard full of Germans watching the opening game, with a barbecue in full flow and headed towards the open door. Just as we approached it there was a cry from an elderly gentleman behind us who looked like he had been running after us. Good job too, as he was the hotel owner who managed to catch us just before we walked into a local's kitchen. Much hilarity from the surrounding people and red faces from us as we followed the hotel owner round to the correct entrance to the hotel.
After watching Germany's victory over Costa Rica we headed into the town to a recommended tapas bar where we could also watch the Poland v Ecuador game. This was a test of my linguistic abilities with Spanish and Italian speaking waiting staff and a German menu. My rudimentary grasp of all three of these languages could scrape by on its own but switching between all three almost blew my brain up - but we successfully ordered some very tasty food - and all of it vegetarian!

It wasn't long before the St George's Crosses painted on my toenails and fingernails created the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the neighbouring table of German fans, who were on a high after their win. They didn't rate the German's chances of winning on paper but reminded us that was the case in 2002 and they still snuck into the final. We pleaded with them to tell us something good about Owen Hargreaves to explain his selection - the Bayern fan amongst them said the best thing about Owen Hargreaves ... before pausing for effect ... was the fact that he was injured for half of the season! Who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?! Another jug of sangria later and we were down to one German left standing who proceeded to give us a guided tour of the bars of Bad Homburg as James introduced him to Brazilian cocktails - it was a messy night!

Feeling a little worse for wear on Saturday morning we headed into Frankfurt on a train full of fans from different nations. Conversation soon started with 4 orange clad Dutch fans who also didn't believe their team could win it but would be fine so long as they went further than the Germans. The Germans on the other side of us with tickets for the game gained in the public sale were looking for more information on the threat of Peter Crouch. James made sure the Southampton connection was given credit to Crouch's emergence on to the world scene - as he had done for Delgado's man of the match performance for Ecuador the night before. It may sound better if they were still with Saints!

We arrived at the massive main train station at Frankfurt and emerged into scorching sunshine and a never ending sea of English fans in full voice, who all looked like they had been drinking since the bars opened. We had walked over a mile down the pedestrianised street leading out of the station before we could see any street space, bar or restaurant which was not covered in England fans. We made our way to the river - which is beautiful - to check out where the fan parks were for later games and discovered a marquee populated by Iranians promoting their football team!

A stroll back up towards the station saw us walk past the Paraguayan team hotel with the buses waiting to transport them. All the team buses have been supplied by Hyundai and have their own individual messages on them - England's is: One Nation, One World Cup, 11 Lions. Hmmm, not sure about that one - not least due to its factual inaccuracies, but that's just me being a pedant! The Paraguayan one was so memorable, I've forgotten it!!

Back to the station and the platform full of fans waiting to get to the stadium, watching the German staff getting increasingly tetchy as trains were delayed - they looked like that had never happened before and they didn't like it much. The walk to the stadium was through a forest, with the initial security cordons about a mile in. A shortage of female security staff meant that women were waiting longer to get through the cordons, although I would have been quite happy to be frisked by some of the male stewards! A few hundred yards later and the stadium emerged in front of us with St George's Crosses visibly attached to the top of the stand in ahead of us.

Our seats were in the gods behind one of the goals, so a long hike up the stairs later and we were in the ground. It was an impressive stadium, with its central video cube and the only ground where I've ever seen an abundance of topiary next to the corporate boxes! With less than an hour to kick off, the stadium was filling up with thousands of England fans and their flags and the nerves were starting to kick in. The roar for the players as they came out to warm up shook the stadium and there was a palpable sense of expectation as well as hope which all added to the tension.

England fans just kept pouring into the stadium, including a handful with an enormous flag right in the centre of the Paraguay section! It began to feel like a home game and was reminiscent of Portugal where spotting away fans or neutrals was a tough task. Bearing in mind the FA allocation of only 5,000 was split between members of englandfans and the "football family", it must have been a good day for touts who were selling tickets at 10 times their face value, around £300 each. Estimates after the game gave the numbers of English fans inside the ground at 35,000 - so even allowing for say 5,000 who got lucky in the FIFA ballot and the odd neutral who wore an English shirt, I reckon that's over £7.5m to the touts on Saturday.

The teams were announced to cheers of support, the fans in good voice, and roared onto the pitch for the national anthems. Ours sung with gusto as usual - with only a very small smattering of "no surrenders" - and, pleasingly, no booing of the Paraguayan anthem but plenty of bad dancing to the rathejauntyty tune! And so to the game itself ... well, it was pretty much like the 99 which preceded it for me. Good in parts, full of hope and possibilities, tense in the main and petering out to an unsatisfactory performance with the right result. Who says we aren't consistent?

So, what was the pitchside view? We started brightly, passed the ball fluently and created lots of chances. The early goal was from a set piece, which is becoming an increasingly reliable route to scoring for this England team. Thanks to the video cube we could see pretty quickly that we had been the lucky beneficiaries of an own goal. But as the half wore on the frustration from the fans at oufailureur to capitalise on our chances seemed to be reflected by the players. The Paraguayans were playing a strong, physical game and many of our creative players were getting kicked around the park.

We hoped for better at the start of the second half, but Owen's substitution crippled our formation. If the idea was for Joe Cole to play off Crouch so Downing could take the left side of midfield, it didn't work. Crouch was isolated too often with the gap between midfield and up front not being filled by Cole who sat back with the rest of the midfield. Crouch looked up for the game from the off and had been most effective with the ball at his feet - except when he was an emergency extra tall defender - yet the ball kept being played to his head for the knock down but no-one was far enough up to receive it. As the Paraguayans moved to 3 up front in search of our equaliser we were pushed further and further back and looked bereft of attacking ideas and options.

And as for the ref ... chants of "how much did the ref cost?" abounded as decision after decision seemed to defy belief. My description of him which I texted to a couple of people during the game is far too unpleasant to feature in this blog. It will be interesting to watch the game again and see just how many he got wrong as it is possible that the frustration and tension from the fans was vented at the referee as a scapegoat, but there were certainly a good half a dozen wrong decisions.

The feeling that Sven had told the players to defend the lead was compounded by the arrival of Owen Hargreaves. Although - and I never thought I would ever see myself saying this - he did shore things up a bit in midfield and even played a couple of forward passes! Still, we did manage to do something we don't usually manage - and that's hang on to a lead. Though as a tactic going forward I think it is more than suspect! It was an absolutely roasting afternoon and I'm grateful that we won't play in that heat for either of the remaining group games as the players (and fans!) looked exhausted.

Beckham's wave to his wife and kids - wearing replica England shirts with Beckham on the back - at the end of the game created an autograph hunting horde in that area of the stadium and many fans, relieved but deflated stayed in or around the stadium to enjoy the sunshine. Those of us in the ground were treated to a joyous sight. One Mr W Rooney, out on the pitch with the other unused squad players for half an hour or so. David James would punt the ball into the air, he would trap it cleanly and then proceed to volley it past the keeper with either feet in a consistently sublime display of skill. After the dearth of attacking options on display from England just previously it was a joy to watch as the fans chanted his name repeatedly. What odds on Rooney starting the Round of 16 game and then going on to win the Golden Boot?!

The later games continued to entertain. The Sweden v Trinidad & Tobago draw saw dancing on the streets from all the Trinidad fans and while that is a useful result for England, we underestimate them at our peril. Argentina looked strong in every department from the off - while we (luckily) have the luxury of playing ourselves into the tournament, the Argentinians are in a difficult group and needed to come out fighting, which is exactly what they did. They are the best team I've seen in the tournament so far, though I suspect the proposed "4 up front" formation being predicted for the Brazilian's opening game may change that. The Ivory Coast also looked strong and deserved the goal - they will challenge the other teams in that group.

So on Sunday it was time to leave. Again the roads were full of England decorated vehicles on their way back and the Eurotunnel terminal full of fans eagerly buying up all available English newspapers or in the bar catching the end of the Holland game - Robben looked on fire - and the start of the Mexico v Iran game with the Mexicans looking lively. Back to the hotel in Ashford to watch Portugal get a result and the first weekend of the World Cup drew to a close.

So how was my 100th game? Exciting, nerve wracking and exhilarating to be part of the World Cup from the off. I'm looking forward to my 107th and still hoping it will be in Germany and not one of the qualifying games for Euro 2008.

And finally: I did an interview for the Durban Times when we were in South Africa for the friendly game in 2003. They asked me how much I'd spent following England. I'd done around 80+ games at that point and the result of my rough guesstimate was a staggering £25k. Visions of my shiny Lotus Elise and lack of credit card flashed before my eyes before I realised that this is the price you pay to follow the national team and I am fortunate enough to be able to afford it - with the help of the rather accommodating credit card companies. So, in a tribute to one of the bigger credit cards, I thought I'd include a small fiscal feature at the end of each posting and see just how much this tournament costs:

FRANKFURT FOR TWO PEOPLE
Match tickets: £62
Travel: £290
Accommodation: £227
Spending money: £207
Tournament total to date: £786
Watching England scrape 3 points to top their World Cup group: priceless

PHOTOS AT: http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/3497066