Saturday, July 30, 2005

Real Madrid do Bangkok

(Ratchamungkale Stadium)
This week, Real Madrid where in town on the last leg of their Asia Tour, this follows hard on the heels of premiership sides, Everton, Man City and Bolton. It was great to see Everton humilated by the Thai Under-23 Team, if they cant beat this team, there going to get their arses kicked in the Champions League. Bolton beat the Thai's in the Final on penalties. Apart from Michael Owen, all of the Galacticos where on display at the Ratchamungkale Stadium. From now on I shall refer to it as “The Stadium”. The Stadium is around 10 years old and was built For the Asian Games, it’s very impressive, and there isn’t a pop rivet in sight, not like the newer Stadiums in UK like Hull City’s new ground. (That’s for you TGB) The scoreboard is great; it shows the game at the same time, so people sitting up in the Gods get to see some of the game. It’s good to go to a ground that as a Scoreboard, places like St. James there is no scoreboard and you forget how many goals Fulham have scored or how much time is left to suffer watching Crystal palace. (That’s for you Mugsy).
The game itself was a fairly dull affair, it was hot, even at kick off, it was 36 degs and the humidity was off the scale. The Thai under 23 team put up a good fist of it, in the first half they had to contend with, Raoul, Ronaldo, Beckham, Zidanne and Solaro. They were soon two down, however they were very fit and after 30 minutes the Real team were wilting, Beckham spent most of the time near the Bench drinking water. Ronaldo and Raoul showed flashes of skill that proved they were amongst the best players in the world, Beckham too, put in a couple of pin point crosses.
At half time we were treated to a show of the Cheerleader Champions of Thailand, before you scoff, these people put on a show that was staggering, the acrobatics were stunning. However when Nuch came back from getting refreshments and hadn’t bought me a meat pie, I was well pissed off!
In the second half we were treated to Carlos, Figo, Gutti, Salgado and Gravison. This was a very defensive set up and the Thai’s took full advantage, nearly scoring half a dozen times. Real Madrid had a couple of chances, and late in the second half Real Madrid slotted home another goal. It took us an incredible two hours to go 10 miles, it was chaos, and the Stadium is in a very large residential area of Bangkok that can only just cope on a normal day, add another 50000 people into the mix and chaos is guaranteed. I’ve never been amongst so many people in one go, I must have seen 1 million faces this night, every square foot of pavement and road was full, every Bus and taxi was full and every restaurant was full to bursting. Never Again! It was a sereal night alround, i've always wanted to see Real Madrid play and have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time, bizarrely, I end up seeing them nearly half way around the world. What next? Probaly see Hull City on their farewell to the Championship and hello to League one tour in 2006, or even Newcastle United on their world tour celebrating winning the Premiership.


(Salgado warming up in that heat)

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