Boca Juniors 2 Real Madird 1

I went to the Toyota Cup game on Tuesday between Boca and Real. A fantastic first half with Boca being 2 up after 6 minutes thanks to goals from Palermo. Then Real came back, first Carlos hit the bar on 9 and then scored a great goal on 12. Excellent first half with both teams looking like they wanted to win it (unlike last year) and a pretty good atmosphere thanks to 2,500 Argentine fans.

It was a bitterly cold night, about 7 degrees and windy, and it reminded me of St James before we got a dead nice stadium. Anyway, not a single South American had a long sleeved shirt never mind wearing gloves. I'm sure if they'd played in the same conditions in England they'd all be wearing fur coats.
Also the stadium, thank god it's not one of the world cup venues. Open on all sides and plastic seats with no backs. It was almost like sitting on benches. It may have been a nice stadium for the Olympics in 1964 but times have changed. I think it would have made Joker Park look good. No forget that. However the best thing, were the beer girls. Who carried cans of beer in trays (like the vendors at US sports games), and served them at your seat. Excellent!

Final thing, I hope they get the policing sorted for the World Cup. Trust me and remember these words, it's going to be a disaster if two sets of fans meet up. An absolute disaster.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000

Answers

Watched the game and kept an eye on the crowd for a Toon top but didn't see one! Been thinking that if I'm still in Oz for the World cup that I might try to make it over.

Nice to be pre warned!!

Japanese girls carrying beer.........Mmmmmmmmmmm

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000

Thanks for the report Kegsy. Curious about your observations on the Tokyo policing. One trusts they will be more prepared for 2002. From what I've seen of their handling of Seoul student 'demonstrations' I doubt that the South Korean police will need any special training in handling hooliganism.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000

Saw the match on tele. I was very impressed with that No. 10 for Boca, Riquelme(don't now the spelling) but that kid is the next big thing in world football. Great skills and how I wish we had a player like him in our team.

Kegsy, if you're still around in Japan in two years time might just look you up for a sake or whatever.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000

Riquelme - Very good on Championship Manager!

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2000

The reasons I'm concerned about policing are simple. The Japanese nation, on the whole do as they're told. When leaving the football and for that matter at other occasions when large numbers of people are moving in one direction (from pop concerts, visiting shrines at New Year etc) people go where they are told. They have 'marshals' with flashing torches, instructing people to walk in an orderly line, not crossing the road when it's red etc. But the whole system collapses if someone goes out of sync. They panic, they really don't know how to cope with people who don't follow the code. Japan is a conformist society. Over 99% of Japanese are sheep, they follow and can't give an opinion on anything. People died in Kobe after the earthquake because nobody would make a decision to allow the Swiss rescue team in. It's happened before and it's happened again.

There will be chaos if they try and manage the football matches in the same way they have in the past. There were no police on duty as such, which is obviously a positive thing but it also means that the police will have had no experience of big match occasions and how to cope with crowds. Other police forces have the experience and still make mistakes. Other police forces have people who have the ability to think quickly and act in the face of adversity, trust me, Japan may have the infrastructure, stadiums trains etc, but the mass of people and the fact that foreigners are still viewed as the foreign devil will make the world cup run not as smoothly as it should.

-- Anonymous, December 01, 2000