Waggy in Japan.

Wow! What a stadium! We made our way to our seats. We were about four rows off the front, right behind the nets. Unfortunately there was a massive TV camera just in front. The ground was nearly full, Sweden had a decent support of around 4,000 fans, this may well have included a few Nippons. The England support was massive, I would estimate 12-15,000 England fans from these shores and the rest of the 45,000 coming from Japan. My mate, Desh, spotted my next door neighbour, who was there with three of his mates. We went round to were he was stood for a quick chat. Ashley the guy with the big world cup was also in the vicinity. We made our way back too our seats and were ready for kick-off. The teams came out, the national anthem was sung with great gusto and the game begun. Having purchased my tickets through Fifa, the England fans around us would be the same for England's full assault on the world cup. God I was feeling rough! Jet lag, hangover, lack off sleep and we were all stood up behind Seaman's net. This was a first for the many Japanese fans in our area, but stand with the English "act English". The game flew by. Sol scored due to the Swedish defence suffering from "arc eye". The flashes from the thousands of cameras going off whenever Beck's took a free-kick or corner was frightening. Half-time 1-0 to the good. I went to the toilet and saw Birmingham Tommy with his son. Tommy is a passionate Roverite and not even from Birmingham. Just a name he picked up 30 years ago when he was at uni in Brum. Had a quick chat he had been to the Ireland game the day before to see Duffer and was flying home the next day to take his 7 year old home. Turning virtually right round and coming back for the rest of the tournament. The second half was a nightmare. More jet lag, voice was hoarse and Sweden equalised. To be honest we were lucky to get a point. Well not getting beat was important and with the Argies winning it made the Sapporo game MASSIVE. After the match we had our photo's taken a hundred times with the Japanese public, hands shook and many kisses. The stadium emptied very slowly and once outside, the queues for the buses were very long. We had spotted a jr station further up the road and headed for that. The time was 8.30pm and it was pitch black................... Waggy