Adventures at the World Cup 2018 in Kazan

So it's Friday 29th June, the first rest day from football at the world cup, for me it proved to be a very productive day of catching up on the blog and for Vlad to concentrate on his new business plan in which I can only offer him the best of luck.

In the evening we stopped our non football activities and went to meet people from the group, initially Vlad and I were joined by Will and slightly later Bilal, Alex and Sid (sorry mate you said call you Sid as opposed to Sidhant) we had a few beers in a very nice bar we found.  Having threatened to do Karaoke at some point in the Kazan experience later after a quick burger we found a Karaoke bar.

I'll never forget Will, Sid & Alex covering Eminem but maybe my solo cover of God & Satan by Biffy Clyro should be forgotten. Later Chris joined us and from my understanding many of the group were still partying past 5am. Vlad bailed at 1:00am and myself at 2:15am, still way to late for getting much sleep ahead of France vs Argentina, but enough..

One more day in Kazan before I head home but with the tie of the round in France vs Argentina still to come I look forward to providing my final updates.

So Thursday of my last week and I'm mile behind with the Blog, so this morning after a long lay in I managed to get a another entry and some photo's posted.  Then before we knew it, it was time for the first round of games.

Japan vs Poland and Senegal vs Colombia were the offerings so we picked Colombia, they had to win to get through, where a draw was good enough for Senegal, but that didn't stop Senegal going for it, it was a great evenly matched affair. There was a penalty awarded to Senegal for a foul on Mane after about quarter of an hour and it did look like a penalty it initial viewing but then VAR came into play and showed it was actually a really good tackle and the decision was rescinded. After about half an hour James Rodriguez had to go off injured, initially I gutted for him but later when I knew England would be Colombia's opponents in the last 16 I was more on the side of "well that's good for England". In the end Colombia got a winner about 15 minutes from the end of the game to put them top of the group as Poland pulled off a 1-0 win against Japan.

What was absolutely gutting though was that with Japan and Senegal on the same points, goal difference, the works; Japan got 2nd spot due to less bookings, devastating for Senegal who have been one of the many bright points of the World Cup for me.

We then made our way to Top Hop bar on Bauman Street to meet Chris and make some new friends, everyone but me was chatting but I was fixed on the Belgium vs England game.  Knowing the result of the crossover group and the rest of the draw I said to people I wanted England to play well but lose by the odd goal as although coming 2nd meant a tie against Colombia as opposed to the easier one on paper of Japan, it meant we were in the side of the draw where the big hitters were Spain as opposed to the other side which has Brazil, France, Portugal, Uruguay and Argentina.

Both England and Belgium made quite a few changes as I'd guessed they would, both teams put on a good show with nice end to end football and as I'd hoped for just a single goal for Belgium was the difference.  An American guy in the bar we had met laughed and wished he'd recorded the Englishman shouting YES to an England defeat at the final whistle, but his very well versed in football (sorry I mean soccer for them) girlfriend completely got it and agreed with my reasonings. So a good half of the draw for England but a tough round of 16 game.

I would not be the only person feeling a little sad today as either South Korea, Germany or both would be leaving the tournament. I was sad because my beautiful lady and her lovely daughter must go home. Being in a long distance relationship isn't the easiest thing especially with the language barriers we have and for as good as translation apps are they can get things wrong; sometimes with hilarious effects others not so.  When we do get time together it's special to us and our current 10 days is about to come to an end, still we will be together in Paris in August and have already started talking about when and where after that.

The girls were leaving from the shopping centre at one end of Bauman Street at 2pm and Vlad & I went down there with them to see them off and carry their bags of course, after this we went straight to Home Pub to meet Will and some of the others from the group still in Kazan, although many of the regulars have now moved on to other destinations and are missed.  I didn't see the people I'd been online with for months as much as I'd wanted but time with my lady was so much more important.

My sadness for you dear reader means you are going to get a lot more about football and no doubt consumption of alcohol, so strap yourselves in it's going to be a wild football ride with a gaping hole of the first none game day on Friday.  Although to put things in perspective this entry and the previous few have been written on that no game Friday as I make desperate attempts to catch up.

With the girls gone and a tear in the corner of my eye Vlad and I got to Home Pub at about 2:50pm, with road closures and a taxi driver impatient at a junction he didn't want to wait to turn at we had quite a bit of a walk after our drop off before we got there.  Will was already there and within a few minutes Salvador joined us, although he soon met another Mexican support living in the US like himself and they were off in Mexico World...

We had a couple of beers and headed into the Stadium, there weren't that many German shirts, certainly nothing like the quantity I had seen in Brazil for the game against Ghana, but there were even less South Korea shirts, this was definitely going to be the game of the neutral fans like me.  To be honest apart from a bit of banter with a German fan about me having to wear my t-shirt depicting Bobby Moore lifting the 1966 World Cup trophy in a game England won 4-2 against Germany and me telling him I'd be an Englishman supporting Germany for the day (although I didn't mean it) the talk was all about how those of us with tickets were going to be seeing France vs Argentina.

Yes the talk should of been about the importance of this game to Germany and how they could go out but everybody just said "Oh it's Germany they always find a way through".

Well in the biggest shock of the lot so far, Germany lost 2-0 to South Korea, unfortunately for Korea they also needed Mexico to beat Sweden to have any hope but it ended up with Sweden getting a 3-0 win which in the end put them top of the group and Mexico only through in second place.

But enough of that you want to hear about what went wrong for Germany, well it's not that difficult, it's been what I have already described about them in the last two games of this World Cup, it's not one thing it's several.  Not finishing chances is one of the largest I guess, but in this game they didn't create as many clear cut chances as you would of thought, South Korea pressured them where it mattered and defended superbly.  There also seems to be a lack of team spirit, a German chap online gave me an example where they lost the ball and rather than running back to win it back as a team the two players involved just looked at each other, rolled their eyes and did nothing. Finally as I've said people have worked out they are vulnerable to the quick counter attach and it did for them again.  I don't want to take anything away from South Korea they deserved the win today.

So it's Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland I'm afraid; as much as for this Englishman there is a certain pleasure to England being in a World Cup longer than Germany you also can't help but feel we will also lose something, I just can't see Sweden doing anything astounding and with Mexico now in second and getting Brazil as we found in the Fan Fest later I fear for them against their old foe.

During the course of the game Vlad and I managed to amass 10 souvenir beer cups, with Vlad getting 3 and two coke cups and me wobbling about to get the other 7.  This time after a quick beer in Home Pub after the game Vlad had the common sense to bring our collection to the apartment and we then went to the Fan Fest for the remaining games with Will.

Brazil put pay in Serbia 2-0 and Switzerland go through in second place thanks to a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica; I really can't wait to see Switzerland exit. This means as I've already said it's Brazil vs Mexico and Sweden vs Switzerland in the round of 16.

After lots more beer in the Fan Fest along with a bit of food it was a very staggered walk back, Vlad went to the apartment while Will and I had late night food. When I got back Vlad had took it upon himself to wash all the beer cups and put them out to dry.

After over a week and two live games away Vlad returns today. We were thinking of going to the Waterpark one last time but with Vlad arriving between 12:00 - 13:00 there would not be time; also my beautiful lady is feeling a little under the weather, she thinks she's picked up a bug from one of the many children on the river cruise.

We do however decide that because it will not only be Vlad's first night back but Elena and Polina's last night before they head home that we will all go out for a nice meal.  We all enjoyed the rooftop restaurant with the view yesterday so we have made reservations for the same table at 3pm.

Vlad arrived at about almost bang on 12:00 and I took the opportunity to do some blog updates that I was well behind on while he caught up with his mum and sister.

Just as we got our Yandex to the restaurant a thunderstorm started, it was a torrential downpour that soaked us just going the 10 yards from the apartment to the taxi and it lasted for a good 15 minutes of our journey, although when we got to Bauman street they hadn't seen a drop of it.  To be honest it needed it, it's been so hot and humid the for the last week it's been well overdue.

The restaurant was very good again, although one of the different dishes Elena had wasn't brilliant and the person serving us wasn't quite as good as the previous day, still it was very good and nice for all four of us to be together for at least the one night.  While we were there Bauman Street got it's major downpour and boy did it come down, the windows of the rooftop conservatory were like a river and it lasted for about 45 minutes.  When it finally stopped the section of Bauman Street we could see looked like a river therefore scuppering our plans to have a stroll down it.

We made our way home and the taxi ride was interesting because the driver had to find a route that avoided the many large pools of water in sections of the roads that were more like mini lakes.

This meant however I was able to see the France game in the apartment, it turned into a bore draw with Denmark just killing it off as they knew a point got them through in second place.  Unfortunately for Australia they had there worst game of the tournament and lost 2-0 to a very good Peru side, in the end if they had won it wouldn't of made any difference but I bet they will look back to the games against France and especially Denmark and say "if only".

Vlad and I decided to go to the Fan Fest to watch the Argentina game, one that was on everybody's lips as the Argentinians could go out, but with the added importance to us because we would find out who we were to see France play.  We asked the ladies if they wanted to join us, but with Elena feeling under the weather and the pair of them exhausted it was just Vlad and I that made the short 10-15 minute walk.

At the Fan Fest we met up with Salvador from the WhatsApp group who had just arrived in Kazan, he is a Mexican supporter living in the US and was a great man to spend the evening with.  Argentina scrapped a very narrow 2-1 win over Nigeria, one that in some ways they were lucky to get. With Croatia beating Iceland 2-1 it meant that Argentina just got through in 2nd place to a Croatian team that has dominated the group. I won't bang on about my prediction of Argentina being a possible for us in Kazan as runners-up in Group D or it being the group of death...  But, I told you so...

So after returning from Home Bar that morning with no cups (see yesterdays post) and a pretty good headache I took some tablets and we all decided to go out to the Palace of Agriculture and have some more time at Lake Kaban.

The Palace of Agriculture is a very impressive building with an enormous statue of a tree, Polina had been asking for a couple of days to visit and for the girls it meant extensive photo opportunity time.

We refreshed ourselves on yet another day well over 30C with a cold drink and then went to Lake Kaban again to spend another hour on a pedelo. Polina again headed to the huge fountain but I was wise to what she intended so this time I managed to steer the boat in such a way only the half they were sitting on got soaked and I just got the odd splash.

Later we went to Bauman street as the girls needed their fix of browsing shops and also to get something to eat; Polina found a restaurant on the Internet that was on the roof of one of the buildings so we decided to give it a go. What a great find it was, lovely views, lovely food and great service.

As we have now entered the phase of the last lot of group games the two games from each group are played at the same time, as we were out I hadn't seen any of the Group A games but wasn't surprised Russia were beaten 3-0 by Uruguay; I'm sorry Russia but when you come up against a good team you are going to get beat.  They've done better than I expected as I didn't see them getting out of the group but with Spain or Portugal the most likely opposition for them in the round of 16 I expect them to exit the tournament.

We left the restaurant and went back on to Bauman Street to watch some of the street entertainment, before returning to the apartment to watch the 9pm games.

Of the choices of Portugal vs Iran & Spain vs Morocco I picked Spain, as you might of guessed by now.  Iniesta and Isco seem to have found a real understanding and they had such brilliant interplay it was a joy to watch but the Moroccans were putting up a hell of a fight and surprisingly following a vary rare mistake and mix up by Iniesta and Ramos, Morocco took the lead, only for Isco to level a few minutes later again after great interplay between him and Iniesta.  Late in the second half and Morocco again took the lead to go 2-1 ahead against a Spanish side who had all the possession, but into injury time, yet another late World Cup goal by Aspas pulled it back to 2-2 and put Spain top of the group.

Although I didn't see it more surprising was Iran vs Portugal, by all accounts Portugal were lucky not to lose and exit the tournament, Ronaldo missed a penalty and should probably have got a red card as opposed to the yellow he picked up. Iran got a injury time penalty to pull the game back to 1-1 and then missed to chance to win it at the death.

For those that don't know; I'm a Sheffield Wednesday season ticket holder along with my brother and have been for 25 years now, wow putting it like that makes me feel old.  In recent years we had a Portuguese player, José Semedo play for us, the fans took him to their hearts and likewise he did the fans. Several years ago the fans even had a José Semedo day for a game against Nottingham Forest, it further cemented the relationship between him and us. José who is nearing retirement age for a footballer soon I guess left the club at the end of the 2016-2017 season but still regularly tweets about Sheffield Wednesday; he is now and always will be loved by the fans.  When he left in 2017 I made a promise to myself that every World Cup or Euro's I attended from then on I would dedicate one day to be José Semedo day; that day is today for the game Poland vs Colombia.

José's number at Sheffield Wednesday was 24 so today I wore my shirt bearing his number, the name on the back "Magic" comes from a song we sang about him that I later decided to teach groups of Colombian's and Will the Aussie.

It was out with the girls during the day and we decided to go to Lake Kaban as it was baking hot and the breeze off the water might cool us a bit. We rented a pedalo and off we went, Polina was determined to steer us right under the huge fountain on the lake which she did very well as she managed to get us all soaked; but temperatures well above 30C and we soon dried out.

Next it was a spot of lunch and then a two hour boat ride from the river port at 3pm, right at the time England were starting their game against Panama so I didn't see it at the time but caught up with the BBC iPlayer highlights later.  There were some Russians on the boat happy to keep me updated as England banged in the goals for a 6-1 win.  Great for me as I'd had bets on a high scoring game and Kane to get a Brace and a Hattrick, so quid's in thank you very much.  One of the Russians, a guy as tall as my Irish friend Aidan, so tall you use them as a reference points out to meet people in a crowd at, was a massive Spartak fan and was travelling Russia watching games in his home nations World Cup.  Another couple of guys were Kazan locals and one was a massive Liverpool fan who wanted to know if I'd been to Anfield, so I explained as best I could that I had, and all about Kev & Neil the Liverpool fans we'd met in Brazil.

The boat ride was nice, but with no commentary its basically 1 hour down the river and then turn round and come back.

We got back to the apartment about 5:30pm, I had the fastest shower and then set off to Home Pub to meet Will and some others from the group. We watched the first half of Japan vs Senegal, both teams impressed but I'm really loving how Senegal play, I think on form England should beat either of them if they prove to be our opponents in the Round of 16 which after todays result we know England will be at, but neither should ether of them be taken lightly.  Mané opened to scoring for Senegal early on and then about 10 minutes before half time Japan equalised through Inui. At this stage we left the bar to make our way into the ground for what we expected would be a thriller of a game.  The Japan vs Senegal game finished up 2-2 with a goal in each half by each team, I will one day watch this game back to see the second half I missed.

In the same way for Iran vs Spain I thought I'd been transported to Iran, well for this game it was the same if not more so that I thought I'd been transported to Colombia.  I'm not sure why, perhaps the negative misreporting press in the UK and Europe, but the European teams I have seen at each of the games so far have been vastly outnumbered by the opposing teams fans.

For all the passion of the Iranians, the Colombians took it a step further the singing of their national anthem, although not quite to the scale that I had experienced in Brazil by the Brazilians for the game against Mexico, it wasn't far off. The atmosphere was electrifying!!!

I'd introduced myself to two Russians (a father and son) who were sat next to me as well as the many Colombians sat around me.  What is it about international teams that wear yellow? Their ladies are stunning; Brazil, Colombia, Sweden; anyone counter argue this?  Chris my American friend took his seat quite late, his voice had completely gone from the first two games he had seen and the poor guy had to negotiate my growing collection of souvenir beer cups that I was amassing due to the hot day and the number of beers I was getting through.

For the first 10 minutes Poland took the upper hand and in Robert Lewandowski they have a treat to any team, but other than that 10 minutes it was all Colombia.  James Rodriguez returned to the starting line up, he had lit up Brazil and his vision, skill and ability to score is up there with the best in the world, and in Radamel Falcao they have a quality striker who has been so unfortunate not to have played in a World Cup before now. The performances by both these players was exceptional for me, but the man who stole the show for Colombia was Juan Cuadrado, another player who Chelsea didn't think was good enough, well he sure was today; the Polish just couldn't handle him.

Colombia took the lead just before half time, with a header home from a Rodriguez cross, that was at the opposite end to me and if the second half had the same Colombian domination I was going to see all the action really up close.

About half way through the second half Falcao got his first World Cup goal and he celebrated like it was something out of this world for him, right in front of us, the Colombians were now two ahead and their fans were going completely nuts.  This was effectively a knock out tie, each of these expected two big players in the group basically had to win to stand a chance of qualification especially after the draw between Senegal & Japan had them on 4 point each.

For me the best goal was yet to come and it was deservedly scored by Juan Cuadrado from a sublime ball behind the Polish defence from James Rodriguez; even then he had a lot to do, he was running at full pace when he picked the ball up, continued with no loss of speed towards the Polish goal and just opened his body up perfectly to fire home low into the goal past the helpless Polish keeper.

It finished 3-0, I partied with the mental Colombians in stadium for about 5 minutes after the gam before grabbing my 5 beer cups and heading to Home Pub to meet some of the group, including Will the Aussie. With all the celebrations the beers started flowing and with everyone in party mood it quickly became a night I'll never forget or ever fully remember. The Colombians wanted to know about my club and why Magic 24, so I explained everything as best I could in my drunken state. Later just before 2am with the bar soon to close I took it upon myself to teach the remaining partying Colombians and Will, my very good friend, the José Semedo song which I think we all did a pretty good job of considering the language differences and just how drunk we all were.

The night unfortunately ended in a World Cup cup disaster, and not just for the Polish.  Will really twisted my arm about not finishing at 2am which would of been sensible but instead going to Bauman Street for yet more drinks and partying; when I say twisted, he had to ask at least twice and off we went.  While on Bauman Street where to be honest we had started to flag within 10 minutes of getting there I suddenly remembered, my five souvenir cups, I'd left them in Home Bar; my 8th World Cup game and I have a souvenir cup from each of the other 7...  Damn it, World Cup cup disaster!!!