Eng-er-land

The Gorse Fox, as explained a couple of months back, finds Wembley quite spectacular. We were amongst the first through the turnstiles and then wandered round the various food franchises to grab something to eat. At the levele where we had tickets there was nothing that would pass as a restaurant - so it was a case of eating standing up - think of it as an intimate buffet with several tens of thousands of guests!

Once we had eaten, bought a programme, and treated to the Silver Vixen to a supporter's scarf we made our way into the stadium itself. People were stting around chatting as dance music was piped over the sound system and the announcer got steadily more excited with each new chance to speak.

Slowly the stadium started to fill up and the announcer, almost breathless with excitement announced that kick-off would be in 1 hour.

Eventually the teams came out to warm up. First the goalies came out and went through their arcane rituals and then, some 5 minutes later, the rest of the team joined them. They ran back and forth, kicked some balls, stretched a lot, and generally seemed to be having some fun as they prepared for the game.

This picture shows (L-R) David Beckam, Emile Heskey, Matthew Upson, Jermain Defoe, and Wes Brown.