England 2-1 Portugal (Koning
Willem II Stadion, Tilburg, att. 3,335)
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| Welcome to .... |
It's Thursday morning and since
I'm based in Rotterdam, I thought I'd visit the Museum Rotterdam before
catching a train to Tilburg. The
attraction had a lowish TripAdvisor score, but what do these people know about
history? Well, it was crap, not helped
by having the interesting bit on Rotterdam during World War II in a different
site altogether. What a waste of €7.50
and my morning. Worse, there was so
little to do in Tilburg. I COULD have
visited the other Museum Rotterdam site…
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| The team buses have arrived. |
Ahhhh, Tilburg. The Netherlands’ 6th biggest city I'm told. Who knew?
Well, it was probably a good time to visit, in the middle of their
annual fair, the ‘tilburg kermis’. Rides
and candyfloss aplenty, as well as a marquee which doubled for bingo in the
afternoon and beer tent by night. Something
for everyone then, with the entire city centre closed off for the amusements.
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| 'Two fat ladies....' |
Sadly, I didn't fancy having my
insides turned outside, nor of my wallet falling from a great height while
upside down, so I took an early stroll to the stadium a couple of miles away. It's not one to walk around either, being
bounded on two sides by numerous tennis courts and an ice hockey stadium,
athletics track and even a small lake a couple of men were optimistically
fishing in.
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| Like jelly babies, the roof is in a wibbly wobbly world of its own. |
The main drag to the stadium had
one or two pubs on it, handily placed for the walk. The stadium operates a kind of outer boundary,
whereby everyone came in at one end before walking around the concourse to the
correct section. I presume there is a
more slick approach to proper Willem II games when the likes of Feyenoord visit.
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| The Main Stand. |
For a second game in a row, my
seat appeared not to exist or the organisers hadn't sold as many tickets as
they hoped and so those few of us who’d bought cheaper tickets for behind the goal
were huddled in with the others. For me
this meant wandering into the first bit of stand I came to. No wonder the stewardess ‘ummed’ and ‘arred’ before
letting me in - it was the Portuguese end.
Maybe 300 were there in support, including one cheerleader, self annointed
or not, I couldn't tell.
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| Portugese supporters. |
The Willem II Stadion is
essentially one tier all around with an undulating roof on three sides. Strangely, the main stand or exec side is the
one without, otherwise the other oddity is the moat, 60 degree banking rather
than the usual sheer drop. Gotta give
those pitch invaders half a chance.
With England virtually guaranteed
to win the group, the onus was on Portugal.
A win might be enough. In the end
a draw would have been. And it would
have been there's had an injury time volley not gone straight down the throat
of the English keeper. Unlucky.
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| The Tilburg moat. |
So, 2-1 to England and a 100%
record. I still maintain the best two
sides I've seen are Germany and The Netherlands. Barcelona's Toni Duggan put the lionesses 1-0
up, capitalising on a scuffed clearance from the keeper before firing high into
the net from 20 yards. That's why Barca
have paid the big bucks.
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| Match action. |
Portugal equalised when a
right-wing cross was cleared straight back to the winger who put it back in
first time for a tap-in. Superb
reactions, though unlucky on England. Half-time,
one-all, and I went on a wander. Could I
spend the €10.50 left on my euro champs prepayment card? No, I could not. A third venue in 3 days had a third separate
payment method. In this place you
swapped money for coins. Make sense of
that if you can.
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| Full-time. The England players take their applause. |
England went on to win it early
in the second half when the centre forward broke past two weak challenges to
finish confidently. The England
contingent was suitably jubilant. However,
the numbers and noise were down on Breda a few days ago. Surely they are not being less supported the
further they go?
The Damage:
€10 ent
= €10
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| Koning Willem II panorama. |
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| A floodlight towers over the stadium. |
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| Behind the goal, before the match. |
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| A Portugal flag waves as the teams are led out. |
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| Portugal and England line up. |
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| King Si....de. |
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| The traditional home end. When fans turn up. |
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| The main stand. |
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| Looking toward the far end. |
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| Match action. |
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| Come on England! |
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