Old Trafford, England Fans

7 Feb 2007 England 0-1 Spain - International Friendly

So I was at this significant Old Trafford. It was a big international football night - England takes on Spain in a friendly at home. A night that Stevie firstly captained England, leading the lads walking out of the tunnel to the pitch. It's not anymore about playing for your childhood club is it. It's about a honour that you wouldn't think twice to take when given a chance to represent your country. Yes, you wouldn't think twice because it's a chance to become a national hero of millions. This kind of significance made the night special. Can you imagine how confident the fans were entering to the ground? All the singing, chanting, waving all kinds of flags and smiling on the faces, with England shirts, hats, scarfs...all those things on!

Before kick-off I sat there and felt like having such a big party! We expected nothing but a decent performance and glory. When the crowd started to make noises, it did, and it's like Old Trafford was actually shacking! When it quiets down, it's really quiet because the stadium is too big! But don't worry, crazy England fans are always behind you, shouting something loudly. Some of those just make you: 'Jesus! Wasn't that too much, mate?' Or something Spainish/English that you can't understand but definitely know it's a bad language toward a player. The man behind me almost lost his voice just 10 minutes after kick-off.

But no matter how hard we were shouting - 'Come on England! Come on! Get it! Shoot!!!' What happened on the pitch just went the opposite tonight. Even worse for me, Stevie was substituted at the half time. 'What the...?', I thought. We started the game well, didn't we. But in the end, it was a mess, and I didn't even know what we were playing at. England was lack of creativity. I won't say too much about tactics or comment on players because I'm not good at that, plus I was distracted sitting there and watching players in such a close distance.

However, all I want to say about the whole game is... England fans deserved more. It was freezing out there, and the fans have traveled from so far away. Come on, we paid but we're not coming here for this kind of performance! Of course you can say England is missing some major players like Terry, Rooney, Joe Cole, Ashely Cole.... We can lose, but not in this way. It's surely a disappointing day for England.

As for my first experience of international football....well, I'd say that I still prefer watching Liverpool. Simply because..with England fans, you won't hear 'Come on Stevie or Jamie!'. It would be like 'Come on Gerrard or Carragher!' And say, for example, if Lampard passes a ball to Wright-Phillips and he missed it, there would be sticks on Chelsea coming out from England fans. That's the difference. I love almost every Liverpool player, but in England, though I wish them to win, I still can't help hating...Lampard. And that made me feel a little uncomfortable sitting there, because I didn't know if it's right to shout 'Come on Stevie!' ....You know what I mean?