La Tania does football – The England Tournament Blog
How many years of hurt?
The #EnglandAway Tournament Blog documenting our travels and misery watch the England National Football Team away from the ski season. The Ski Blog is at www.latania.co.uk/blog and there's more football stuff at La Tania does football...
En route to Euros quality @henrywinter reading material…
Delays, strikes, floods, protests… Finally on the way…
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Tickets Arrived… All Sorted… Here We Go Again…
Just rail, metro, air, docks, petrol, power, air traffic control and pilots strikes plus street protests, floods, terrorists, hooligans and STDs… We did manage to avoid certain death in South Africa, Ukraine and Brazil mind!
Squad announced 16 May at 11am – Includes Standbys…
Goalkeepers:
Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Tom Heaton (Burnley).
Defenders:
Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Everton), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool).
Midfielders:
Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Ross Barkley (Everton), Fabian Delph (Manchester City), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), James Milner (Liverpool), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Andros Townsend (Newcastle United), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).
Strikers:
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United).
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Brazil 2014 – The Video Montage plus World Cup Loves & Hates
Click on the text link to watch…
The Video Montage – HD Format – SD Format
The Loves and Hates…
Love about Brazil World Cup 2014:
Entertainment value of most games and quality football – Best World Cup ever.
The refereeing overall.
Rio free travel with tickets on match day, volunteer helpers etc.
The Food – all of it.
Prices – generally cheaper than expected and still can’t find the BBCs £21 pint of beer. Average is £2 for a pint.
The Drink – most of it.
Cocktails on the beach.
The beaches.
Pre-match music – Thunderstruck, AC/DC.
Copocabana – Best location for a FanFest ever.
The banter with fans from all over the world.
Long, long moaning, grumpy conversations with England Fans analysing every kick, formation, team selection and managers decision for days after games – quality crack.
Caipirinhas and “CaipryVods”
Rio Helicopter Trip – breathtaking.
Italy, Portugal & Spain also going out in group stage.
USA Fans – forgetting about the chants & dress code – out here in big numbers & many highly knowledgable.
Aussies – plenty here, always up for a drink.
Louis Suarez – the whole affair.
Favela visit – humbling.
Watching Brazil in a penalty shoot out on the Copacabana.
Goals x Bookings x Corner sweep.
Getting belted by waves on the Copacabana.
Colombian Fans, always smiling.
Mabs Bar.
England’s Support.
Brazil locals, bar staff etc spot on.
Hate about Brazil World Cup 2014:
Face Paint.
Fancy Dress.
Mexican Waves.
Wigs and Stupid Hats.
Family/Tourist Day Out Supporters.
USA fans dressed up as other teams and supporting them (daily occurence in our hotel).
U-S-A and “We believe we will win” USA chants.
The FIFA Flag Ban.
Sau Paulo – City too big, organisation, transport and ticket collection not up to scratch like Belo and Rio.
Half Time Music – Happy, Pharell.
Ticket allocations.
Cat1 Maracanã tickets no better than Cat3 – a rip off.
The protestors – it’s too late now anyway and it may have cost £13b but £27b is coming in as a result (a few hundred thousand jobs created too).
The whole “we’re on the big screen thing” with fans waiving at all the cameras focused on the crowd – focus on the bloody match!
Brazil fans (only during matches) – not exactly sporting, mocking Chile & other teams going home and hyper critical of all players.
Mobile phones all videoing the whole match.
The Traffic.
Mabs Bar.
England’s performances.
The FA (& the new members tickets scheme).
And FIFA obviously…
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We’re England ’til July
Last wave of the flag on Ipanema Beach in Rio. Probably time to go home – Thanks Brazil, the people, places, food, drink and football were all brilliant.
Euros in 2016 are in France – very handy, but tickets will be a nightmare to get hold of no doubt. See you there…
