GB Olympic Football...so the Games begin

Although officially the London Olympics starts on 27th July, Football had the chance to kick off the games with two days of matches prior to the Opening Ceremony. Old Trafford in Manchester was given the privilege of hosting Team GB's introduction to the Men's Football tournament. The chance to attend an Olympic event was too good to miss and I travelled up to the North looking forward to playing my part in ensuring the countries full support was behind the games.



The transport links seemed to be working to full effect and the metrolink got us to the ground without any delays. I was pleased to see the large number of people gathering around the stadium and the atmosphere was jovial with fans of Uruguay, Senegal and Great Britain all having group photos taken with each other. A true good spirited coming together of nations just as the Olympic message promotes.

I was surprised however, to find little else going on to celebrate the Olympics by the organisers, no type of entertainment outside the stadium, no mascots milling around for photo opportunities and little chance to buy Olympic  merchandise. There were however very large groups of security staff and Olympic volunteers congregated in various corners of the outer stadium area just milling around apparently without a purpose.

There then appeared to be queues forming around the area and it came apparent that before entry to the stadium was granted, all bags had to searched, emptied and their contents placed into clear plastic bags in an airport style operation. All ladies handbag contents were there for everyone to see which I presume may have caused embarrassment to some. From there people then moved into the queue to actually enter the stadium again being frisked which in turn was causing long holdups.


Once in the stadium the atmosphere was one of celebration, the excitement of the event was obvious and it was terrific to see so many families meaning young children would experience the Olympics in their lifetime. The large stadium was about 60% full when the first game kicked off, Uruguay versus United Arab Emirates, a game the South Americans would be expected to win at a canter. The game however didn't go to script and the UAE demonstrated an entertaining free flowing style of football that the crowd quickly warmed to. Despite taking the lead, the fairytale ending didn't quite come off as the Uruguayans class finally told as they come back to gain a 2-1 victory. The UAE players had won many friends though and were rightly applauded off the pitch at the end.

I was expecting some kind of entertainment between the two games taking place but again nothing
unless you count the Olympic volunteers throwing a large beach ball in the crowd. Not exactly hi-tech but there again it did distract some people to pass the time until the next match started.


By the time the Great Britain game was set to begin the stadium was full, 72,000 spectators full of anticipation and the noise levels rose as Team GB and the Senegal team entered from the tunnel onto the pitch. Obviously being the host country the majority of support was for the Britons, and despite attending numerous international sporting events in the past, i don't think i have ever heard "God Save the Queen" anthem sung with such passion by the crowd.

The game itself was not the most entertaining and despite GB taking the lead, the crowd seemed a bit distracted as numerous laps of the Mexican wave went round the stadium. The enormous Senegal players began to anger the partisan crowd with their strong arm tactics and it was only a matter of time before a player got hurt by one of their over zealous challenges. Any goodwill from the home crowd seemed to deteriorate as the Senegalese seemed to disregard the referees warnings. They continued to cynically foul the British players resulting in two players suffering game ending injuries. Towards the end Senegal got what was in football terms a deserved equaliser but they certainly wouldn't win  any medals for sportsmanship on this display.

The event had been a total success despite the disappointment the GB fans endured towards the end of the match. It seemed really well organised, transport links seemed to go well and everyone I spoke to had seemed to have enjoyed the event. Yes the queues to get in were long but in turn were only to be expected as security needs to be tight as the Olympics are an obvious target to the terrorist elements. The main lesson to be learnt if going to an Olympic event is to travel as light as possible and above all take in the experience because it is unlikely us Brits will see it hosted here again in our lifetime.