Matt's World Cup Diary

Day 1 – Czech Rep v Ghana - Cologne

On arrival at Cologne / Bonn airport we had to travel upto Essen to drop the stuff at the hotel and then back to Cologne for the game. In the intervening 3 hours Cologne changes from a slightly busy city to a seething mass of humanity. We did have 2 tickets between ten of us for this game, but the lad who was going to give them to us went on holiday without passing them on – so we are ticketless, but hopeful of picking up tickets at the ground – which has been fairly easy at other tournaments.

We get the tram towards the stadium but soon find ourselves squashed into a corner by a few thousand Czechs, a situation that gets more unpleasant as the tram in front breaks down and we grind to a halt. After ten minutes of inactivity in pretty unbearable heat the Czechs force the door open and we set off for the ground on foot. So much for German efficiency.

At the ground it soon becomes apparent we are not going to get in – compared to previous tournaments there are just too many people trying to get in (Czech Republic borders Germany after all) and not enough tickets (most of the Germans with tickets actually want to go themselves). The going price is around 400 Euros, way above our limit – so we head back into the City. We then find that there are so many Czech’s around – we can’t even make it into the huge square where the big screen is and end up watching the game with a bunch of Newcastle fans in a bar round the corner.

The night ends with a rendition of Depeche Mode songs back in Essen – don’t ask.