Day two - a great little road trip, though a crazy long day. Out the house before seven, collecting Steve, Simon and Ryan on route. Some confusion about service stations... I was tempted to take back everything I'd said about those helpful volunteers. There was a dangerous lack of them around junction 14 of the M1. Tsk.
Made it to Manchester about eleven, in time to be jaw-droppingly impressed by the great Theatre of Dreams.
Stopped to look at the Munich tunnel - an extremely well-presented memorial to the victims of Manchester United's terrible 1958 plane disaster, then made our way into the ground for New Zealand versus Egypt. Ryan has always been a passionate New Zealand fan, so when the All Whites took an early lead, he was fairly pleased.
Sadly for Ryan the Pharaohs equalised, and now need to beat Brazil to progress from their group.
He will live, but the sadder for the experience.
Then it was the turn of Brazil to take on the mighty Belarus. It was always going to be tough for minnows Brazil to overcome the massive contingent of Belarus supporters:
However, they ran out 2-1 winnners with a fantastic Neymar free kick and a headed goal from Milan's Pato:
The score was definitely 2-1. We know this for a fact because we stayed until the very end of the match, rather than doing anything stupid like leaving 2 minutes early to beat the traffic and missing a great third goal for the Brazilians. We would never make so stupid a mistake.
Didn't get home till almost ten, but an excellent day had by all. Watching football at the Olympics, like visiting Wimbledon yesterday, didn't feel quite like the games, but the Swimming pool tomorrow morning will surely be the real deal.
Ryan: Come on the mighty All Whites! I love the fact that the New Zealand football team were the only team to remain unbeaten in the 2010 world cup, managing three bore draws but prompting a popular DVD release back in Aotearoa, entitled 'UNDEFEATED' showing all three of their group games and culminating in their elimination.
ReplyDeleteI also loved watching this match as Sandy cheered on New Zealand chanting their nickname 'All Whites, All Whites, All Whites.' until Steve pointed out it that probably not everyone knew the New Zealand footie team were called the All Whites and that it all sounded a bit racist.
And finally one more thing I loved about watching this game. Egypt missed a late chance which resulted in the whole Egyptian team to collapse to their knees and pray. The New Zealand keeper saw this and quickly passed the ball out 'Play on' and all the Egyptians had to rush back to their feet.
It's a sad day when you can't even shout for a coach to bring on a couple of right-sided players. My "Rights For Whites" chant received several very disdainful looks.
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