2022 World Cup Diary – Part Nine (Portugal v South Korea, Education City Stadium)
South Korea leave it late
Friday 2nd December 2022
So, Friday and the not only the final day of the group stage at this World Cup, but for me, my eighth and final stadium, and my last match before returning to the UK to enjoy what remains of the tournament from the comfort of my sofa. So let’s compare the experience of ‘being there’ with watching on TV. Of course you get the full picture – in terms of both the experience of the physical reality of the match – the stadium, the environment, the weather, the noise. I will always remember the first of the two actual World Cup Finals I was fortunate enough to attend in person. It was 1990, and although it goes down in history as a terrible game settled by a penalty in favour of West Germany against Argentina, it felt a bit special being at such a monumental event. There was a moment when the pre-match TV coverage was broadcast on the big screen at the Olympic Stadium in Rome and it hit me… I am actually here whilst billions are watching on screens around the world. This is a bit special. I felt similar at my second final in 2002 in Japan, but it was a little less intense.
Nowadays, the sheer expense of the tickets are a reason I am not obsessed about ‘being there’. And the reality is that although you don’t get the full picture on TV, you get the details. Things are dissected in a way you do not get in the stadium with replays, and the zooming in of the camera. So I didn’t attend the finals to get a better view of events, but to experience what the stadiums were actually like. So in 2002, as things turned out, I spent the entire tournament in Japan. I did not travel over to South Korea for any matches. The stadiums in Japan are vivid in the memory. South Korea – they are just names. I saw the games on TV, the atmosphere was buzzing and it was great to be there, but there is little in the way of distinction between them.
You miss a lot of games when you are actually there because you are either traveling to the game you attend or actually seeing something of the host country yourself. Or sometimes just eating in places where there is no TV. Funnily enough, I watched a complete recording of the Brazil v Germany final I attended in 2002 on the flight to Doha from London. I might have watched it before soon after returning from the finals 20 years ago, but I can’t recall. This was certainly the first time I had watched it for 20 years. And in honesty, I’d forgotten most of the details, even the goals. I knew the result of course, I knew that Ronaldo scored twice. I recall Germany hitting the post. But not much more. I paid close attention to Gilberto Silva, who of course joined Arsenal soon afterwards. He was immense in that tournament, and only called up late when Emerson was injured. However with all of Brazil’s other outfield players, including the three centre backs, enjoying getting into the final third, he held things together at the back, an top quality insurance policy.
Back to 2022, and I took the Mrs for lunch in Souk Waqif before we headed for the stadium. She wanted to see Ronaldo in the flesh, so was up for this one, having only done three of the previous seven matches. She bought a couple of things in the souk, including perfume, so that meant a drop off to the prohibited items unit at the stadium pre-match – rather like a plane, no liquids over 100ml allowed in. A bus was laid on to the stadium from the souq (market) so we got there in good time, taking a long, although pleasant walk past the architecturally impressive university building there.
Having dropped off the banned item, we headed into Education City stadium. Although we arrived in daylight, by the time we reached the ground itself, it had got dark. The usual scan of the Hayya card (which doubles up as a visa) and the match ticket at the first entry point where the security check is done and then a walk to the your stadium block entry itself, past all the sponsor stalls, and FIFA shop (always with a queue to get in) and various entertainment – DJs and live music dotted around. The exterior of the stadium itself is like a long, shallow upside down basket illuminated by multi-coloured strip lighting that changes its colours.
As for the game, and there were a lot of VIP seats empty for this one – a lot. You have to imagine that these are sponsor seats, but it wasn’t a good look. Fortunately for FIFA, the cameras are pointed at the other side, where ordinary fans prepared to pay for category 1 seats minus the hospitality filled the stand a lot more. Naturally, for those less into the football, like my other half, Cristiano Ronaldo was the main draw. A triumph of self-marketing, my memory went back to Manaus, in the Amazon, in 2014, when Portugal played the USA in a group game I attended. There were elements of the crowd that went almost hysterical when CR7 touched the ball, and I thought, for most of these people this is the only time they will see this guy play in the flesh. And in a sense, that is what the World Cup brings to some of the more far-flung countries that host it. Big stars appear in cities where the norm is the local club. The chances of Messi and company appearing in the likes of South Africa or Japan in any other context aside from the World Cup are not high, especially now that the Intercontinental Cup (now the World Club Cup) between the Champions League and Copa Libertadores winners now tends to be played in Dubai.
Ronaldo, who I have seen in the flesh more times than I needed to, may still be the crowd favourite but his powers are waning. Portugal were qualified, and the selection reflected this, with a weakened team. Cristiano though, wants to score goals. So he plays. Although in the three group games in these finals, he has scored a solitary penalty. Sadly, for him, his powers are waning. It is one of life’s great ironies that when Portugal finally won a major trophy in 2016, he was withdrawn early in the final through injury. But ultimately now it’s like latter years Elvis in Vegas. Little reminders of the old brilliance, but it’s not how it used to be.
A word about the air conditioning in the stadium. Firstly, it depends where you sit as to how cold it felt - if you were caught in the actual airflow being pumped out at some places it felt a bit too chilly. But ultimately, certainly for the games after dark, he A/C was unnecessary. My guess is that the stadiums were designed and construction started before the decision to move it from June/July to November/December. So air conditioning would have been necessary. However, I recall seeing the temperature at an evening game was 24 degrees outside, and 21 degrees in the stadium. No real need to lower the temperature there. I’ll give you, the earlier kick offs in the group stage were in daylight, but the temperature only gets as high as 27 or 28 degrees. There really is no need for the air conditioning in an outdoor stadium. I have no idea how much that cost, but for those stadiums that are to be used again… well, I assume that some games will be played when the temperatures are well into the 30s, so perhaps there will be some long term benefit. No need in November and December though. I’d have preferred a balmy heat myself.
Back to the football. South Korea had plenty to play for and credit to them for keeping going. With two early goals, I did hope we might see a hatful in the game, but a third goal came in the form of a late injury time South Korean winner that eliminated Uruguay, winners of the other group game against Ghana, on the number of goals scored. The South American side thought a win was all they needed, and removed their main goal threat (Darwin Nunez) 20 minutes before the ref blew the final whistle. Ah well, couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch and I am sure the Ghanaians were slightly comforted by the misfortune of their opponents being denied, given the history between the two countries (Suarez, 2010 and all that). And to add to the drama, Andrew Ayew missed a spot kick, just as one of his countrymen did in that quarter final in South Africa.
It was an evening of twist and turns. We completed it with a visit to a rooftop bar in the JW Marriott hotel where you paid approximately £12 per person to get in, for which you had a free drink and your pick of screens to watch the football. After a week of being teetotal, I enjoyed a bottle of beer and caught the first half of Brazil v Cameroon from the comfort of a bean bag. We left shortly after half time to get food, so I missed the injury to Gabriel Jesus, and the news does have that feeling of ‘season over’ if it turns out he does miss three months. Eddie Nketiah has his believers, although sadly I am not one. Transfer splash, anyone? Anyway, Arteta, Edu and Josh can worry about that one.
We had to be up early to make our flight. I decided to stick to UK time, so for me that meant rising at 5am for our 10am flight. The last evening match always finished around 9pm, and on this, our last night, we hit the sack around midnight UK time after we had eaten and reached the Clusters for the final night. It’s not the first time I’ve done a game a day over an extended period. France 98 for example was ridiculous. Something like 16 games in 17 days or something. And you forget how exhausting it can be.
Going forward, I will write blogs on this tournament that are more about the football – one after each round, so four more in total. I’ll relay a little more about Qatar then, but this was the final full day out here, and both me and the Mrs were both looking forward to getting back to London, if not so much the colder temperatures. It’s the first ever winter World Cup. I suspect it might not be the last, but it didn’t feel like any particular time of the year out in the Middle East. It was just a lot warmer than back home.
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