| Day out at the Under-20 Football WC | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 13 2015, 03:55 AM (1,339 Views) | |
| Caro | Jun 13 2015, 03:55 AM Post #1 |
|
There have been two, actually. Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium hosted four countries - Uruguay, Mexico, Mali, and Serbia. I think Uruguay and Mexico were the pre-tournament favourites out of this group. A couple of weeks ago we saw two games with our son, for whom this was a birthday present, and our grandson, for whom it was a bit of a long ordeal. Mexico vs Mali first and I was not unnaturally on Mali's side. There are strict rules for the venue usually and this time worse than usual. The branding all has to be blanked out, so it was now the Otago Stadium, and you weren't allowed to bring in any bought food (though your own home-made sandwiches and cakes were all right), and no drinks, just an empty water bottle which could be filled at the grounds and weren't to have a top on them. I thought that could mean dangerous splashing on the steps which go quite high up, but they are more concerned with throwning bottles onto the field (you'd need to have a pretty good arm) and people trying to subvert the advertisers. Checking the bags was a bit of a joke - "I need to search your bag. Can you open it please." This was my handbag - I unzipped it and she took a very cursory glance and said it was fine. My son and husband took in muesli bars up their socks, just to be awkward (and to have something for the four-year-old to eat). The second night we went the woman in front of us had a thermos flask so obviously the searching of her bag was similar. Food at the venue is expensive, of poor quality and with long queues. Coffee probably ditto, but it was too hard to beat the queues for that. Merchandise was pretty hard to buy too, only one man on the stall with dozens waiting. My husband bought a blue beanie. Toby enjoyed the bouncy castle at half times, and the Mali people playing the bongo drums or whatever they were, and being allowed to bank them too, and he liked shaking hands with the mascot, Wooliam. He was ready to go home after the first game though, and I tried to entertain him a bit. Telling him Three Little Pigs meant he had to correct Gramma's retelling many times - I didn't deliberately get it wrong, but it's a while since I've read/heard it. "It's not stones, Gramma, it's bricks." "PIG, not PIGS, Gramma." And I wasn't sure about the ending - did the wolf still get boiled to death and eaten? I think Toby's version had him scrambling out and running home with his tail between his legs. But the football was fine. Mali beat Mexico 2 - 0, and Uruguay beat Serbia 1 - 0, though I wasn't sure who to barrack for there, Serbia not being seen favourably by Croatia where we had a nice week a few years ago. The next round-robin for them resulted in all four teams having a win and a loss, but in the end it was Serbia and Mali who topped the group. We also went last Wednesday to watch a game for the quarter-finals. It was Serbia vs Hungary. I had intended to be on Hungary's side but the newspaper that day had an article about how much the Serbians had loved being in Dunedin, and how friendly everyone had been, and they had one last favour - for Dunedin people to support them now. So we did really. It was a good game and my husband thought he was going to see penalties live for the first time, but with about a minute of extra time to go Serbia scored to make it 2 - 1. Sort of scored - the goal was an own-goal, and the young Hungarian boy trying to clear it was distraught. He just lay on the ground from the time the whistle blew till all the rest of them had got up, shaken hands, and limped off the field. We felt very sorry for him, though if it had gone to penalties some other young man would have had our sympathy. So now it is down to the last 8 - USA, Serbia, Mali, Germany, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Portugal, Brazil. NZ won its first Under-20 game, beating Myanmar quite comprehensively, but just missing out on a spot in the final 8 when Portugal scored in the 87th minute to make it 2 - 1. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · International Affairs · Next Topic » |






12:24 AM Jul 11