So, was it good for you too?
The football fairytale you live in bursts and it´s time to head home to reality.
11 cracking Germany games
Germany matches are always a thrill.
Back in the day if they lost and you were there you were guaranteed an unforgettable experience and a warming dose of schadenfreude that flooded organs you didn’t know you possessed.
Since seeing them three times at the 2006 World Cup, even their wins have become something to relish as my weltanschauung has widened and I learned that the childhood Victor comic German was an embarrassing cliche..
Here’s the cracking 11 Germany games I’ve been to, each memorable in its own way.
Why I’m supporting my boys – Ivory Coast
At 3am, seven hours after Germany’s 4-2 win over Costa Rica, a 60-year-old pianist was banging on his old Joanna in the middle of Munich.
Outside the Town Hall, he was cranking out ditties to a motley crew of crazy Costa Ricans, drunken Germans, moustachioed, sombreroed and short Mexicans and two Welsh guys high as red kites on 2006 World Cup fever.
Copacabana football (2001)
A striker and goalkeeper clashed going for the ball, two yards away from goal. Both fell over in the sand, the ball a yard away.
The striker, lying prone, looked like Fidel Castro in his prime – bearded, barrel-chested, slight pot belly, but muscular.
Esso World Cup 1970 coins
It’s official, Esso brainwashed the Welsh into supporting England at the 1970 World Cup. We should sue.
As a vulnerable, easily-led, seven-year-old in Llangunnor, Carmarthen, I collected the coins via my old man, who visited the Esso just the other side of the bridge out of the town centre .
Holland fans 3 Wales fans 3
Welsh fans drew 3-3 in a 70-minute friendly in the shadow of the Amsterdam Arena this afternoon.
Wales 1 England 3
And still they don`t come.
Wales under-21 games have never been a crowd-puller – Aaron Ramsey was the only player ever to make it a night to relish.
And even the old enemy as opposition were unable to pull in the crowd in Swansea.
They missed a decent contest played with real passion and pace.
Wales 1 Ukraine 1
The Welsh women’s team wasted a wonderful chance to enhance their World Cup qualification hopes in this fitfully entertaining draw.
An equaliser in the 78th minute from the home side’s best player Natasha Harding clawed back a point after Wales showed a lack of wit and trickery.
A win would have opened up a headlong charge for the top spot, with group favourites England to be hosted in August and the result seemed like a missed opportunity.
Aberdare 1 Bala 2
St David’s Day, so it had to be the Welsh Cup.
Aberdare. Off the beaten track, somewhere almost no one goes to unless they live nearby or over the other side of the valley.
Newport County 1 Wimbledon 2
What a difference a Wembley winner makes.
An eventful week has seen Wrexham part company with Andy Morrell eight months after his side – arguably the better team last May in the Conference play-off – lost out to Newport County.
And the Black and Ambers are now lumbering in the mud and playing every three or four days for two months with the star that day, Christian Jolley, barely able to get a shot on target.
The ‘Death Match’ stadium, Kyiv
The ‘Death Match’ inspired a film starring Sylvester Stallone and is still a cause of furious debate more than 70 years after it was played.
The stadium in Kyiv which hosted the game on August 9, 1942, still stages games but is in typically decrepit Ukrainian condition.
It inspired the Escape to Victory movie but if you read wikipedia accounts then eye-witnesses claim players were not killed as a result of inflicting defeat on German players
Life’s a gas – Bristol Rovers 1 Oxford United 1
If you live in South Wales and fancy sampling an 80s-style terrace frenzy with a decent crowd on it, options are few.
Newport County’s Rodney Parade doesn’t quite cut the mustard, its terraces are low-slung or uncovered.
So time to head for the land of carrot, Pirates and Sinatra. Time to sniff the Gas.
Continue reading Life’s a gas – Bristol Rovers 1 Oxford United 1
Miles from Nowhere 