Thursday 6th June 2002
 After a shaky start as
Ricky Barnett - England Fan, on Monday I assumed my alter-ego
of Ricardo Barnetto - Fanático del Fútbol de Ecuador.
No, I haven't abandoned my beloved three lions, but having
only been able to get two England tickets, I needed something
more to satisfy my hunger for The  Greatest Competition in
the World Ever, Part 17. What better team to choose? Who
has a bad word to say about Ecuador (except those namby-pamby
environmentalists, who think that rivers and trees are more
valuable than oil and burgers)? And besides, having failed to
get a series of tickets for the ever-popular England, I
thought I'd try the other end of the scale (Scotland didn't
qualify).
I took an early flight up to Sapporo.
Being the lager capital of Japan, I of course had to go
to the Sapporo beer factory. It's only polite to taste the
merchandise during such a visit, so I took a welcome break in
the beer garden. I spent the time working through the
different possible permutations of outcomes for Sven's young
boys, and came to the conclusion that if Argentina beat
Cameroon and the Swedes lose to Mexico, then England will go
through to the round of sixteen in second place.
 Having sobered up a
little, I went to the International Supporters' Village
in the city centre, where I was forced to join a Japanese tea
ceremony and had to eat disgusting bean-paste cakes and drink
snot-green tea. Pass the bucket! The whole of the
Ecuadorian population was in the village, everybody speaking
Spanish, it was just like being in Los Angeles (except it was
raining)! I actually speak a little Español myself, so with a
lot of head nodding and "Ola!"s, I managed to avoid being
revealed as an imposter.
Not that being an imposter is
unusual out here, half the fans at the games are Japanese who
support a team other than their own. In fact, some of them
have more flags on their faces than the UN has in its front
garden!
 Ronaldo had also
got tickets to this game, so I met up with him and Parwez,
and we went to an Ozzie pub to watch the day’s first couple of
games. By the time the evening came we were nicely beered
up,  and went off to the
space-age Sapporo Dome, looking forward to a game of silky
smooth football. We weren’t disappointed in terms of the style
and spirit on show, but it would’ve been better had the
Italians got stuffed instead of the Ecuadorians. The Italy
squad are looking pretty good to go all the way, adding the
World Cup to their “Hair with Flair” trophy. Walking to the
after-match party, I accidentally kneed Ronaldo in the
bollocks, he went down clutching his foot!
Watched
Ireland’s great comeback last night in Paddy’s, great to see
the Hun take that last-minute body-blow. Let’s hope the
Uruguayans can perform tonight against the Froggies cos it’ll
give us an extra boost for my return trip to the Sapporo.
Could it be France and Germany out in the first
round?
So far in this World Cup I’ve had loads of
fun and not seen the slightest hint of wanton violence (off
the field). The big question is “Will there be any argy-bargy
tomorrow night?” |
