How does that song go? Que Sera, sera. What ever will be, will be. We're going to Wembley. Que Sera sera! I'm sure every English football fan out there has sung it at least once when on an FA Cup or FA Trophy run (if your a fan of non league football like I was!)
Wembley, just the name conjures up so many footballing memories, Gazza's free kick against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi final in 1991 when he beat David Seaman from 35 yards out, with the second best free kick I've ever seen, top spot of course going to David Beckham vs Greece. Memories like Euro 96 when we beat the Scots and the Dutch before losing in one of the best games I've seen to the dreaded Germans on penalties. You think of the greats of the game that have graced the pitch, all the worlds best have played there from Bobby Moore to Maradonna to Messi to Ronaldo. It's not just football that the place is famous for, who could ever forget the amazing Live Aid and inparticular Queen's performance when Freddie Mercury had the crowd eating out of his hands in what is one of the best live music performances of all time.
I'd visited the old Wembley a couple of times on school trips to see the odd game here and there but not the new one. So when an advert for the England v Japan friendly came on my Facebook feed and the tickets were a very reasonable £45 each so I thought why the hell not. So this is a first for this list as well I roped someone in to accompany me on the expedition, none other than the legend that is Big Dave and in accordance with the rules I set out at the beginning of this insane quest I have to give him credit, although as he is an Arsenal fan I do it through gritted teeth. Meeting up at King's Cross and heading for an old haunt of ours the Rocket, a couple of pints of Ashai and a good catch up where once again wombles came up in the conversation, it's a weird thing that keeps happening to us.
Getting off the tube and walking down Wembley Way made me have a few little goosebumps, the archway coming into view, although not as iconic as the old twin towers, still had an air of gravitas to it. It was here I was a little worried about the number of Crystal Palace and Brighton shirts on display but then Dave quickly reminded me that they both have key Japanese players in there ranks, a few more drinks in the ball park and a very nice pizza and I treated myself to the blue third strip from Italia 90. We paid a visit to the iconic Bobby Moore statue and a nice touch that I hadn't known about was the names of all those players who had pulled on the famous three lions in the past. I did get a little annoyed at this as it was only the men that had been recognised when everyone knows that the women have been far more successful than there male counterparts. Now it maybe that I'm wrong and it's located somewhere else in the stadium but that little thing did leave a small bitter taste in my mouth. I also had to seek out Gary Lineker's name and curse him for being the reason I support Spurs....especially this season!
We had another couple of drinks in the fan zone, commenting on all the old England shirts on display, including a rather random David Beckham one with the number 17 on the back, which neither of us could explain. Making our way into the ground all I can say is thank god there were escalators as our seats were right up in the gods! No wonder they were so cheap! The game in short was awful, Japan deserved the win in all honesty and the best part of the game was seeing if the paper aeroplanes that were being made by people could reach the pitch. It says everything that about 1/3 of the stadium had left before 70 minutes had elapsed, we stayed until the end mostly to try and avoid a crush for the tube, which worked to a degree and I would be the first to say that getting back to Kings Cross was so much easier than after the Sam Fender gig and we even had a laugh and joke with a Chelsea fan as we were waiting.
Another one crossed off the list, 17 down only 83 to go! Stay tuned kids the next one will be here soon!
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