Germany | Pearcey's Blog

A bit of a weird groundhop this one as, although it took me to my favourite stadium in the World, it also involved Wales’ biggest rivals. England v Germany at Wembley probably not the best game to go to for a Wales fan, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make my 5th visit to the Home of Football and the best stadium in Britain.

Driving up from Cardiff with my Dad and following the compulsory pre-Wembley ritual of parking at Hillingdon, having a Pizza Hut out at Uxbridge and then getting the tube to Wembley, I was looking forward to this visit in a slightly different way to the previous ones as it was the first time I could properly enjoy the stadium and a decent game of football there rather than anxiously watching Cardiff fail at the last hurdle again in a Final. The more relaxed nature of this visit even made walking down Wembley Way more enjoyable as everyone was on the same side, bar us undercover Welshmen, rather than the silent tension of walking alongside 40,000 opposition fans.

One of the best sights in World football

The game itself was shaping up to be very interesting, despite being a friendly. England were looking to finish the the Football Association’s 150th Anniversary Year on a high and bounce back from a home defeat to Chile a few days previously, while a young and inexperienced German side carried many players wanting to stake a claim for a World Cup place in the absence of big names such as Ozil, Lahm and Schweinsteiger, and, of course, no England v Germany game is ever really a ‘friendly’. England made a few changes from the team that lost to an Alexis Sanchez-inspired Chile, bringing in the experience of Ashley Cole, Joe Hart and returning captain Steven Gerrard to support the inexperience of Andros Townsend and Adam Lallana.

Wembley looked fantastic as ever with a near-capacity crowd of 85,000, yet one of the things that makes it such a good stadium is that it doesn’t seem to be that big, you’re never really far from the pitch and always have a good view. However, one point where this visit didn’t quite meet expectations was atmosphere. Previously with Wembley split between two club sides the atmospheres were immense, however on this night the England fans were particularly quiet and were easily outsung by the 1,000 or so travelling Germans, seated on the other side of the Stadium from us. I think this is something to do with the fans, certainly sat near us, being more interested in their club players rather than the National side. I have to say they seemed to be a majority Arsenal fans and on the 2 occasions I have been to Arsenal they have been very quiet so maybe this rubs off on their support of the National team. Not knocking them though, I’d take 85,000 quiet fans turn up to watch Wales than the 10,000 we get currently.

Before kick-off there was a real favourite for ‘pre-match/half-time entertainment of the year’ with Bongo Cam! Basically fans were encouraged to ‘play the bongos’ on the screen when the camera was on them, kind of EyeToy on PS2 style. Sounds a bit odd, but funny viewing!

Bongo Cam!!

The game itself started quite tentatively with England having the best of the possession in the midfield but not really being threatening in the final third while Germany were always dangerous on the break. England’s best chance, if you could call it that, was a looping Rooney header from 12 yards that never really looked like going in, but the deadlock was eventually broken by Per Metersacker just before half-time. Moments after Hart had kept out the Germany captain with a fine save, another corner was headed out to Gotze who curled in an inviting cross which the Arsenal defender met perfectly to put Germany 1-0 up. Steven Gerrard tried to put England back on level terms with a strike from 20 yards but it never looked like dipping enough to trouble Weidenfeller as Germany maintained their lead at half-time.

The anthems

Best stadium in the World

Germany celebrate their goal

Germany came out looking to double their lead at the start of the second half as Gotze danced through the centre of the England defence before a desperate Jagielka tackle found it’s way straight to the feet of Reus who produced a smart stop from the on rushing Hart. England went closest as Andros Townsend, fast cementing his place on the right wing ahead of Brazil, cut inside onto his favoured left foot and managed to dig out a fantastic low shot that beat Weidenfeller all ends up but struck the foot of the post to deny England an equaliser. The last chance of the game fell to Gotze, who provided constant quality in a second half that, as ever in International Friendlies, was ruined by multiple substitutes, but the Bayern Munich man was kept out by Joe Hart who would’ve gained much confidence from this performance after being dropped first by Manchester City and then by England.

As we left Wembley it provided another reason why it is the best Stadium in the world as 85,000 fans were seamlessly ushered down Wembley Way and into Wembley Park station without any sort of crush on the platform. There was even some decent banter from the England fans on the way out. Now to start planning next year’s Wembley visit…