Olympics Football at the Millenium Stadium - Wed 1st August
So, visit to the tennis done...now onto the football.
I decided to take my uncle to the football with me as Rob doesn't like football (and in the end wouldn't have been able to go anyway!)
We set off from Westbury train station at 1410 and happily I had got seats reserved when I booked the tickets. By the time the train had reached Bath Spa it was full and the number of people who got on at Bristol was amazing...!
I wish I had taken a picture because the train was so full that we left people on the platform at Filton cos there just wasn't any more space on the train!
The train was really hot and it was a relief to get off at Cardiff. Thankfully they were handing out bottles of water at the station....which was quickly drunk before we even reached the stadium.
Typically our tickets were for gate 1 which was the furthest away! Took about 20 mins to get there and then we had the ridiculous security to deal with...!
All belongings had to be entered into a plastic bag....not really sure how this helped cos once everything was in the bag you couldn't see everything!
No airport style scanners here but everyone had to be searched...! It started raining which seemed to speed up the checks and finally we were in!
Many stairs were our next obstacle....once we reached the top we got a drink...and boy would we be glad we did this later...!
Mini rant here though....all bottled drinks had to be poured into a plastic glass before we were allowed them...! I know that some people are stupid and would throw them but still!?!
Anyway, drinks in hand we now had the second part of our climb to come.....our tickets were in the second to last row so we were a long way up! (I did only pay £20 though so no complaints here.)
Here is the view from the top:
We had two matches to watch in this session, the first being Mexico vs Switzerland. This would be followed by Uruguay vs Great Britain.
So, here come the teams:
As I mentioned earlier this was my first ever live football match so I wanted to get a few key photos....here is the first kick of the match:
For the early part of this match Switzerland appeared to be the better team. They were controlling the ball well and applying pressure on the Mexican goal....the first half ended goalless though.
We also had a bit of rain:
I was monitoring twitter throughout this match to check on Andy's progress and got a text from Rob to confirm that he had come through in 3 sets....so now we decided to go and get some food before the GB match started....
Of course we missed the goal that Mexico scored to decide the match in the process of leaving to get food :(
This was the worst part of the whole day....the queues for food were absolutely out of control....
The worst part about the queues were that they just didn't move....! Service was incredibly slow and we eventually discovered that the problem seemed to be that they just didn't have enough of the food ready.
The selection was also quite poor: steak pie, cheese & onion pasty, chicken wraps (hot/cold) and bacon baguettes. There were also crisps and chocolates available.....
It took us about an hour and 20 mins to get a wrap and in doing so we annoyingly missed the start of the second match :(
The stadium had filled up a bit though:
The first half was quite good as the Uruguay goal was at our end so we got to see a few shots on goal.
We were also in the right place to see what turned out to be the only goal of the match....just before half time! Nice to see a GB goal in person :)
We only had one train option for the return journey and so we decided to sacrifice the last 15 minutes of the match in order to get to the station on time.
We picked up a programme on the way out and John bought himself a T-shirt before heading towards the station.
We arrived there to find a short queue already (the were organising passengers outside of the station and only letting people in when the train arrived.)
Not long after the match finished and the queue behind us was massive - it was a good job we had left early.
Gladly, we didn't miss any goals and we got to Bristol with almost and hour to spare before our connection...and we arrived back in Westbury just after midnight.
I have to say though the organisation at the football was much worse than at the tennis...and it would put me off buying tickets to another event at Cardiff :(
The rest of my photos (including the tennis) can still be found here: Photos
I decided to take my uncle to the football with me as Rob doesn't like football (and in the end wouldn't have been able to go anyway!)
We set off from Westbury train station at 1410 and happily I had got seats reserved when I booked the tickets. By the time the train had reached Bath Spa it was full and the number of people who got on at Bristol was amazing...!
I wish I had taken a picture because the train was so full that we left people on the platform at Filton cos there just wasn't any more space on the train!
The train was really hot and it was a relief to get off at Cardiff. Thankfully they were handing out bottles of water at the station....which was quickly drunk before we even reached the stadium.
Typically our tickets were for gate 1 which was the furthest away! Took about 20 mins to get there and then we had the ridiculous security to deal with...!
All belongings had to be entered into a plastic bag....not really sure how this helped cos once everything was in the bag you couldn't see everything!
No airport style scanners here but everyone had to be searched...! It started raining which seemed to speed up the checks and finally we were in!
Many stairs were our next obstacle....once we reached the top we got a drink...and boy would we be glad we did this later...!
Mini rant here though....all bottled drinks had to be poured into a plastic glass before we were allowed them...! I know that some people are stupid and would throw them but still!?!
Anyway, drinks in hand we now had the second part of our climb to come.....our tickets were in the second to last row so we were a long way up! (I did only pay £20 though so no complaints here.)
Here is the view from the top:
We had two matches to watch in this session, the first being Mexico vs Switzerland. This would be followed by Uruguay vs Great Britain.
So, here come the teams:
As I mentioned earlier this was my first ever live football match so I wanted to get a few key photos....here is the first kick of the match:
For the early part of this match Switzerland appeared to be the better team. They were controlling the ball well and applying pressure on the Mexican goal....the first half ended goalless though.
We also had a bit of rain:
I was monitoring twitter throughout this match to check on Andy's progress and got a text from Rob to confirm that he had come through in 3 sets....so now we decided to go and get some food before the GB match started....
Of course we missed the goal that Mexico scored to decide the match in the process of leaving to get food :(
This was the worst part of the whole day....the queues for food were absolutely out of control....
The worst part about the queues were that they just didn't move....! Service was incredibly slow and we eventually discovered that the problem seemed to be that they just didn't have enough of the food ready.
The selection was also quite poor: steak pie, cheese & onion pasty, chicken wraps (hot/cold) and bacon baguettes. There were also crisps and chocolates available.....
It took us about an hour and 20 mins to get a wrap and in doing so we annoyingly missed the start of the second match :(
The stadium had filled up a bit though:
The first half was quite good as the Uruguay goal was at our end so we got to see a few shots on goal.
We were also in the right place to see what turned out to be the only goal of the match....just before half time! Nice to see a GB goal in person :)
We only had one train option for the return journey and so we decided to sacrifice the last 15 minutes of the match in order to get to the station on time.
We picked up a programme on the way out and John bought himself a T-shirt before heading towards the station.
We arrived there to find a short queue already (the were organising passengers outside of the station and only letting people in when the train arrived.)
Not long after the match finished and the queue behind us was massive - it was a good job we had left early.
Gladly, we didn't miss any goals and we got to Bristol with almost and hour to spare before our connection...and we arrived back in Westbury just after midnight.
I have to say though the organisation at the football was much worse than at the tennis...and it would put me off buying tickets to another event at Cardiff :(
The rest of my photos (including the tennis) can still be found here: Photos
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