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Watching your national team


Reesh

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Seen them 3 times in total, 3-0 vs Ukraine at St James Park in 2004, 1-2 vs Germany at Wembley not long after it had reopened in 2007, and 2-0 vs Costa Rica in the warm-up game prior to the 2018 World Cup. Glad I've seen them play in person, and my lad is 8 soon so he's getting to the age when he'll be angling after me taking him as well.

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I think I’ve only seen them live twice.

A pre Moscow friendly and Rooney’s* 100th cap (I think it was).

 

I have however, travelled all the way to Ljubljana to watch a qualifier against Slovenia in a pub. It was my son’s first England away day and he wanted the company on the planes, trains, and tortuous journey he’d identified as being the cheapest.

 

 

* Can someone get the auto correct sorted. Typed in Rooney and it changed to Romney. FFS.

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I've seen the USA play, I'd guess, 30-35 times.  World Cup qualifiers (especially v Mexico) can be very, very good fun.  The Gold Cup (CONCACAF's Euros) is hit and miss.  Semis and finals can be good, but they're usually fairly tame.  When CONMEBOL held their 'centenario' here, that was pretty good, and USA games were quite worth the effort.  Friendlies tend to be just mates, beer, and footy, which is a decent combination regardless of the quality of the latter.  

We don't have a 'home' stadium, like Wembley, so they play all over the country.  Whenever they're in the Midwest, I go if I can.  I've seen them in 7 or 8 different venues ranging from around 20k to maybe 80k capacities.  

If I had a local 11 that I could go to every other week, I might not make the effort for USA.  But I'm 2.5 house from MLS, and frankly, it blows.  So USA is as good as it gets for me without flying halfway round the globe.  

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I vaguely remember watching a  England game at Huddersfield a few years ago now, can't remember if it was U21s or Schoolboys 

My old man has been to Wembley to watch England in a World Cup Qualifier.

I'll admit I'm not that bothered when it comes to "Friendlys" but love the Euros & World Cup.

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7 minutes ago, Mark said:

Used to go to every home England game in mid 80s onwards. Saw Hirst debut v France think it was. Only been a couple times last 10 years. Doesn't have anywhere near same appeal as Owl's 

Made his Debut vs Australia on 1st June 91, scored his one & only England goal on 8th June 91 vs New Zealand with his last game coming against France in February 92.

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17 minutes ago, Mark said:

Used to go to every home England game in mid 80s onwards. Saw Hirst debut v France think it was. Only been a couple times last 10 years. Doesn't have anywhere near same appeal as Owl's 

Cos of the band I assume. 

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37 minutes ago, pook said:

I've seen the USA play, I'd guess, 30-35 times.  World Cup qualifiers (especially v Mexico) can be very, very good fun.  The Gold Cup (CONCACAF's Euros) is hit and miss.  Semis and finals can be good, but they're usually fairly tame.  When CONMEBOL held their 'centenario' here, that was pretty good, and USA games were quite worth the effort.  Friendlies tend to be just mates, beer, and footy, which is a decent combination regardless of the quality of the latter.  

We don't have a 'home' stadium, like Wembley, so they play all over the country.  Whenever they're in the Midwest, I go if I can.  I've seen them in 7 or 8 different venues ranging from around 20k to maybe 80k capacities.  

If I had a local 11 that I could go to every other week, I might not make the effort for USA.  But I'm 2.5 house from MLS, and frankly, it blows.  So USA is as good as it gets for me without flying halfway round the globe.  

I would love England to tour the country again like they had to when Wembley was rebuilt but the blatant over spend on the National Stadium means they won't 

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55 minutes ago, Reesh said:

I would love England to tour the country again like they had to when Wembley was rebuilt but the blatant over spend on the National Stadium means they won't 

Same. 

I went to game at Weeds when they played Sweden. Had a good wash after. Decent game though tbf

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1 hour ago, owl4ever1867 said:

Made his Debut vs Australia on 1st June 91, scored his one & only England goal on 8th June 91 vs New Zealand with his last game coming against France in February 92.

Apologies, yes your right I forgot about that

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I've been to Cardiff a few times to watch Wales and watched them at Wembley against England in 2010. 

First 'international' was watching Sterland capt the under 21s at the Sty and beat Spain to win the Euro championship. 

I've followed football when World Cups and Euros have been close. Went to all the games at Hillsborough in 96, popped across to France in 98 and Belgium in 2000 but only got in the fan zones. Managed to get tickets for Argentina Serbia and Portugal Mexico in Gelsenkirchen in 2006

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Back in the 80's a group of us used to watch England 2 or 3 times a year. We'd make a day of it, travel down in the morning, park near Wembley, tube into London, couple of drinks, a curry, take in a sight, then back to Wembley. It was a great day out.

We stopped going when we got into a tube station one night which was full of Chelsea supporting England fans who thought it would be fun to search out fellow England fans from the North and beat the sheeite out of them. We managed to get out of the station unscathed but ended up missing the first 15 minutes of the match. We couldn't be arsed after that.

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3 hours ago, Reesh said:

I would love England to tour the country again like they had to when Wembley was rebuilt but the blatant over spend on the National Stadium means they won't 

I agree. The atmosphere at Wembley comes across as flat and sterile. What’s with the constant paper aeroplanes. I can’t think of  many other national teams outside the Uk  who are based in one City. I believe Germany, Spain and Italy all tour around their country

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I went to both England v Scotland games in the play off under Kevin Keegan. We were lucky that Scotland forgot their finishing boots - especially at Wembley when we were very fortunate to lose by the one goal. It was the worst performance I've seen from an England team until Iceland

I can't be bothered with the New Zealand football team until they move to the Asia qualifying stage as what Australia did. There really is zero competition against the mighty island nations round here for them. They're always going to qualify for the play off spot and then 99% of the time, will always lose the play off. May as well go into the Asia qualifying and compete there, as well as within the Asia cup.  

 

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Saw a qualifier v Luxembourg at the old Wembley, won 6 - 0.

Also got some freebie tickets from a pension company for a friendly v Sweden at the new Wembley. Was in the mid tier corporate seats, all very soulless, got a free beer at HT so just stayed drinking that for 20 minutes.

There was also some B international v France in about 1984 at S6. Schools were dishing out free tickets in the West Stand, but we declined preferring the Kop. Our school won a prize for distributing most tickets, which our Head of PE went onto the pitch to collect. To a rendition of "Mr Moss, Mr Moss what a wanker what a wanker" from a section of the Kop.

In truth he was, a lad I used to sit with Todd decking him at a basketball game was proof of that 

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Yes. Saw em against Italy a few years back 1-1 it finished if I recall. I also went to a game when I was much younger against an Eastern European team, I think it was a Czech team and it was boring, it was when Greenwood was the manager I think.

I just don't feel any connection with them. Don't get me wrong I watch our games (mostly) when we get to the finals of the various competitions but that's it. The most I was ever interested was when we had a few players in the squad back in the 90s.

No comparison to following Wednesday.

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Did Wembley in 88 v Holland in a friendly. Missed Tony Adam’s’ goal as I was too busy booing and jeering Rudd Gullitt, who’d been substituted and was walking past where we were stood. Think it finished 2-2.

Also did a qualifying game (poss World Cup) at Wembley in late 80’s, poss 1990, v Republic of Ireland. Game finished 1-1. 

Decided after that Wednesday came first and haven’t attended an England match since.

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