The Football Match

 

As I mentioned in a recent post, a bunch of us were interested in attending a football (soccer) match while here and learned that the English National team would be taking on Czechia at Wembley Stadium. After lots of trial and error, we figured out how to buy a batch of tickets, expecting that their modest price would mean we had seats high up in the nose-bleed section.  The prospect of this outing was daunting; Wembley holds 80,000 fans, the tube to get there and back would be crowded, and it would be a late-ish night.  Kickoff wasn’t until 7:45pm. As the night approached, a few of our group bailed out but five of us braved it.  We have no regrets!

              Getting to the Wembley Park tube station was easy, involving only one tube changeover from the station near our lodgings. Once you exit the Wembley tube station, there is a sea of humanity making its way on a wide walkway to the enormous stadium. We joined it, reaching our seats in plenty of time to grab some food and settle in.

 

Our seats were pretty good!  As you can see from the top photo, we were in the last few rows of the lower section, and on the curve between the long and short sides. We had a good view of one of the goal nets, which turned out well since most of the first half action occurred at our end.

We were also near the small slice of stadium seats allocated to Czechia fans.  Apparently, to ensure no negative fan interactions or conflicts, the opposing team fans are grouped together with massive security surrounding.  Look at all those orange-vested security people lining their section.

 

The match itself was exciting. Czechia netted an ‘own goal’ early on (whoops!) and Harry Kane scored near the end of the first half.  The English fans went wild. In the second half, he scored again (now at the other end from us) so at this point the score was 3-0.  We decided to get a jump on the tube crowds, so soon left along with everyone else who had this same idea. We had thought it would be an ordeal getting back and it was crowded.  We had to inch our way to the train platform. But everyone was courteous and once we got on the train, it was a smooth ride back to our station. We got back to our lodgings shortly after 10pm which wasn’t so late after all.

We were so proud of ourselves! The whole experience was fun, but the best part was the opening hullabaloo as the English team took the pitch. Flames and sparkler thingies and light-show stuff when on for quite a while. 

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We were very impressed with the Wembley Stadium set-up and staff. The crowds were very well-managed with many polite stadium reps available to answer questions, give directions, help those with mobility concerns, and the like.  Security was a heavy presence, but we didn’t see anyone misbehave in the slightest.  It was a family-friendly event with plenty of young children attending with their parents. We’re glad we didn’t miss it.

              If you care to know my (unpopular) thoughts about American Football vs. European Football, refer back to this post and this one too.