World Cup 2002!!! My first game
(Written by: Andrew Leung, 2002)
My first experience
Today, I attended my first World Cup game. Wow, it was a real eye opening experience!
First up, I got tickets through my good friend whom I met during a work term, Tak. He’s a Japanese born in Canada and he applied for tickets internationally. He scored 4 tickets for his family and UNFORTUNATELY they did not want to go. Tak offered me and I “graciously” accepted.
‘,’This whole experience was planned for a long time. Even forgotten at some point. Many details were discussed and fussed over. Many hours of INTENSE research into soccer/football was conducted (through dedicated viewing of all the games on TV.) I have to say that I really am hockey fan but after watching football, I see many parallels. Football is very simple but the factors involved are amazing and creates such a complex situation, especially for tournaments.
Today’s experienced could never be researched enough to understand the feeling. Arriving at the stadium after all the security checks, I saw the stadium with my own eyes… BIG
I watched the England vs. Nigeria game. I picked up an England jersey outside the stadium for a decent price, decent for japan that is! Some blokes from England are sponsoring their own trip with the sales of these shirts. Very entreprenerish of them. English REALLY love their football. The stadium was just FILLED with red and white jerseys, England’s team colors. Nigeria’s green color was not to be found, except for one SMALL section of the stadium.
We arrived quite early and found our seats to be quite good but at the end of the field. We caught the action for half of the field to be really good but at the other end we could see nothing.
Seeing the game here was much different from TV. The fixed position meant that I can focus on the LARGER picture instead of head shots. See how the whole team moves and why some passes are made instead of others. Lots of details missed…but the handy cam from work helped a lot with recovering some details.
English people are CRAZY for their football. The majority of the stadium was filled with English people either living in Japan or flying in for the games. They all had songs and chants. Their passion for the game can be seen visually and heard with not only their voices but their war drum and trumpets. Every inch of the stadium was covered with English flags. If there was an open spot, some English would try to put up their flag. It happened a few times infront of us.
I also found the English were very biased towards their team. If the English player was hurt or fell, people would yell:
Blow the bloody whistle!
While if the opposition fell and stopped the play people would yell:
Get up! Quit stopping the play!
It seems that English people REALLY live for football (this maybe the third time I mentioned it..) and they expect a lot from them.
Score already! Come on!
I think England’s position was quite relaxed today as they did quite well in the first round and secured a spot to the second. Hence, they did not need to win badly.
Some pictures for this event (most photographed by Khern):
(KH: Note will post the photos later after I figure out the best way to do this. For now, just the captions.)
Fattening up with some McDonalds so I will fit into this jersey better. Left to right: Tak, Wei, Me.
This was under the kind of opening to the stadium…WHO that guy on the right is, I don’t know. Left to right: Me, Khern, Tak, Wei, + ???
Pretty sweet but the place was getting crowded! There were LOTS of people dying for tickets.
Khern in front of the map of Nagai stadium. Pretty big place. Max capacity of the stadium is about 50,000 people.
YES! We are FINALLY gonna be some football action! Picture of us with tickets right before they’re torn up. Of course, some of us are holding it upside down.Left to right: Wei, Khern, Tak, Me.
Shot from our seat. Not a bad view! The attendance was about 45,000 people!
Left to right: Jon, Suzuki, Saito, … yah, right, as if I really knew!
Action shot!!! I didn’t get any shots as I was using the video camera… Might take some captures off and see. Quite different from regular camera…a little more addicting.
Another action shot! Free kick that did not produce results. England really over shot everything today!
The game came to a draw. I spent a LOT of money. Paying 250yen for uncapped Aquarius was not impressive. I really enjoyed watching it instead of taking the things on video tape but I think the tape turned out well. Good practice for me for the Japan game on Friday.
Leaving the stadium was hell. Crowd control was good. EVEN on the train platforms, there were LOTS of people telling you to move to the end of the platform. We wanted to just wait for the crowd to die down, but there really is NOTHING around the stadium!!!
I walked away from this experience with a new insight on what the World Cup is like, especially how important it is for the English.
Filed under: Japan
Article Part 2, by Andrew Leung 2002:
Japan’s World Cup future depends on this game today (June 14). They are currently in the top of their group which I think many people did not expect to happen. Beating Russia in the last game propelled them into the top spot. Today’s game will be easy against Tunisia. Tunisia is even saying that they cannot beat Japan as they are stronger and they are a co-host. Is the Tunisia coach NUTS or something?! Sure, he maybe right, but saying that before a game kind of lets your own team down. Maybe he\’s also throwing the Japanese team off by giving them an illusion?
Japan can be eliminated today IF Tunisia scores more than 2 goals to beat Japan AND Belgium beats Russia (?) Otherwise, Japan will be moving onto the next round. If they finish 2nd in the group, they will go against Brazil. If they finish first, then they will face Turkey in the next round. Either way, it will be rough.
This world cup has already seen many upsets. France is already out. Argentina is going home for the first time in 40years only after the first round. China did not even score a goal in their first world cup debut. I wonder why they didn’t win more since they have Shaolin Warriors on their team, oh wait, that was only in the Hong Kong movie, Shaolin Soccer.
Today’s plans will be light. Get dressed up in our Japan gear, which my GOOD coworker Nagumo-san lent for us to use!!! Loading up on accessories, body paint, and learning the victory song. Just kidding on the last 2. Only Khern will do the body paint. I wonder what wearing the WRONG colors would happen to you today. I think in the England game, you could easily start a fight. Today? Maybe everyone will start bowing?!
After the game, if Japan wins, I heard that every one will be heading to Dotonburi river in town and maniac fans will jump in the river. I think we’ll throw khern in regardless if they win or not.
Oh yes, the WAR PAINT went on for this game!!! Tak’s aunt in Yokohama sent us a battle kit (fans, horns, tatoos, etc.) for this match. Hehe… pretty sweet."GET THE GOAL!"