Scotland vs England - June 9th, 5pm

[RussellAnderson]

What an experience! We drove down from Aix in the morning, grabbed a spot of lunch and then headed to the fan-zone. It was incredible to see so many Scots turned out for it, must have been a couple thousand at least! Great atmosphere, although they just had the one refreshments stand which did everything - hunners of brits queuing up for a 6€ Carlsberg in a plastic cup. We may have been better drinking in a bar beforehand then heading to the fan-zone after. Note for next time!

Shuttle buses to the ground were about as well organised as they could be, although it was miles out. I was a tentative Yes-To-Kingsford guy before but this has added to the massive doubts I now have about the out of town stadium.

Fair fucks though, the stadium’s impressive. Fantastic backdrop and it looks like a mini version of the bird’s nest thing in Beijing. I’d say the attendance figure looked about right. Felt approx a third full. I’ve no idea if that’s good or not for a game this size but there was a great atmosphere at the ground. Shame that the seating wasn’t segregated as you’d have got a better noise if you did. Massive queues for food and drink in the ground too, making me think they weren’t expecting as large a crowd. Great rendition of the anthem. Goosebumps stuff. Scotland at a World Cup man, amazing. Honestly so proud of them!

Game was good stuff. We were front row so saw a lot of Nikita Parris first half and Claire Emslie second. Parris is an incredible player. Incredible pace and technique. Anybody moaning about the quality of play is deluded when it comes to their men’s team. These women are the real deal. Besides, comparisons between men’s and women’s totally miss the point. I won’t get into that too much here though.

We were in the match up to the penalty. Never a pen IMO but them’s the breaks. VAR still pisses me off. No replays or anything in the stadium, innocuous block of a cross, and about a minute later the ref stops the game, trundles over to her wee screen and gives a pen. We knew what it was for because the England players were whining about it (jeeesus they were niggly, whiny arseholes weren’t they?!) but it was right in front of us, so perhaps other people in the ground weren’t able to tell? Not sure though. Shite anyway.

The first goal knocked the stuffing out of us. You could see that the players were deflated. The English were faster/harder/stronger all over the park and seemed to dominate us physically. We were hemmed in and the second goal was inevitable. Couldn’t clear it when it was ricocheting in the box. Other than that, I thought our centre halves were imperious. All the joy England were getting was down the wings. Docherty got ripped a new one by Parris and was hooked early on second half. Smith did so so much better against her. She offered loads more going forward too.

The offside goal in the first half was obvious to us as it was at our end. The one about 10 seconds into the second half not so much, and I thought that was it. All the attackers were in shock at the halfway line and it looked done. When the flag went up, it really re-energised the team and we were able to get much more of a foothold in the game. Suddenly Emslie had loads of space to work in, and Little and Beattie grabbed hold of the midfield. The passing was slick and we created chances. The goal was amazing. 1st since Burley v Norway in 98, and it gave us a chance. After that, the last 15 or so minutes just whizzed by as they often do when you’re chasing a goal. There were a couple of half chances, Arnott looked handy when she came on. Too little too late.

It’s a decent start really, to be a shite VAR penalty away from a point against one of the best teams in the world is good. They did us all proud. So so glad I went to watch a little bit of history. Hopefully it’s a game we all look back on as the start of women’s football becoming equal standing to the men’s game up here.

Coming out of the ground there were three wee lassies all in the pink away kit kicking a mini football about, trying the flicks they saw from Cuthbert and Emslie. I don’t think you can underestimate the effect a great international side can have on young fans taking up the game.

Buzzing for the other games now! Allez Ecosse!

[TheScarf]

Did you get a swatch of Hope Solo?

[RussellAnderson]

Did you get a swatch of Hope Solo?

Unfortunately not but did spot Eilidh Barbour and Rory Hamilton in the pie queue

[Dunty]

14 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

We haven't enough cities.

Euro U21s/Womens Euros our limit.

New Zealand are applying to host it. We should co-host with them.

[Dunty]

6 hours ago, RussellAnderson said:

What an experience! We drove down from Aix in the morning, grabbed a spot of lunch and then headed to the fan-zone. It was incredible to see so many Scots turned out for it, must have been a couple thousand at least! Great atmosphere, although they just had the one refreshments stand which did everything - hunners of brits queuing up for a 6€ Carlsberg in a plastic cup. We may have been better drinking in a bar beforehand then heading to the fan-zone after. Note for next time!

Shuttle buses to the ground were about as well organised as they could be, although it was miles out. I was a tentative Yes-To-Kingsford guy before but this has added to the massive doubts I now have about the out of town stadium.

Fair fucks though, the stadium’s impressive. Fantastic backdrop and it looks like a mini version of the bird’s nest thing in Beijing. I’d say the attendance figure looked about right. Felt approx a third full. I’ve no idea if that’s good or not for a game this size but there was a great atmosphere at the ground. Shame that the seating wasn’t segregated as you’d have got a better noise if you did. Massive queues for food and drink in the ground too, making me think they weren’t expecting as large a crowd. Great rendition of the anthem. Goosebumps stuff. Scotland at a World Cup man, amazing. Honestly so proud of them!

Game was good stuff. We were front row so saw a lot of Nikita Parris first half and Claire Emslie second. Parris is an incredible player. Incredible pace and technique. Anybody moaning about the quality of play is deluded when it comes to their men’s team. These women are the real deal. Besides, comparisons between men’s and women’s totally miss the point. I won’t get into that too much here though.

We were in the match up to the penalty. Never a pen IMO but them’s the breaks. VAR still pisses me off. No replays or anything in the stadium, innocuous block of a cross, and about a minute later the ref stops the game, trundles over to her wee screen and gives a pen. We knew what it was for because the England players were whining about it (jeeesus they were niggly, whiny arseholes weren’t they?!) but it was right in front of us, so perhaps other people in the ground weren’t able to tell? Not sure though. Shite anyway.

The first goal knocked the stuffing out of us. You could see that the players were deflated. The English were faster/harder/stronger all over the park and seemed to dominate us physically. We were hemmed in and the second goal was inevitable. Couldn’t clear it when it was ricocheting in the box. Other than that, I thought our centre halves were imperious. All the joy England were getting was down the wings. Docherty got ripped a new one by Parris and was hooked early on second half. Smith did so so much better against her. She offered loads more going forward too.

The offside goal in the first half was obvious to us as it was at our end. The one about 10 seconds into the second half not so much, and I thought that was it. All the attackers were in shock at the halfway line and it looked done. When the flag went up, it really re-energised the team and we were able to get much more of a foothold in the game. Suddenly Emslie had loads of space to work in, and Little and Beattie grabbed hold of the midfield. The passing was slick and we created chances. The goal was amazing. 1st since Burley v Norway in 98, and it gave us a chance. After that, the last 15 or so minutes just whizzed by as they often do when you’re chasing a goal. There were a couple of half chances, Arnott looked handy when she came on. Too little too late.

It’s a decent start really, to be a shite VAR penalty away from a point against one of the best teams in the world is good. They did us all proud. So so glad I went to watch a little bit of history. Hopefully it’s a game we all look back on as the start of women’s football becoming equal standing to the men’s game up here.

Coming out of the ground there were three wee lassies all in the pink away kit kicking a mini football about, trying the flicks they saw from Cuthbert and Emslie. I don’t think you can underestimate the effect a great international side can have on young fans taking up the game.

Buzzing for the other games now! Allez Ecosse!

Would be interested to hear more about this.

If you'd rather, you could post the reply in the Aberdeen stadium thread.

[RussellAnderson]

Would be interested to hear more about this.
If you'd rather, you could post the reply in the Aberdeen stadium thread.

Nah I avoid that thread like the plague.

To sum up, it was much further than Aberdeen’s will be:



Crowd size about the same (13,000ish) but the stadium obviously has a much larger capacity so they’ll have the infrastructure to cope more easily.

It broke up the day IMO and you felt isolated at the stadium. We went too early (about an hour and a half before KO) and there wasn’t anything to do before the game. No drink, massive queues for juice and food, but no opportunity to go anywhere else. Car parks and building sites for miles around. The bus journey there was hellish, felt about 30 degrees which is no joke in a kilt. Uncomfortable as there were hunners of us jammed onto the bus, mixed together so there were loudmouth English fans spraffing nonsense in their fucking annoying accents (I appreciate this is probably more my issue). Dropped us right at the ground which was good.

Bus home was better. Massive crowds but well marshalled down a purpose built pickup zone. At first it appeared that none of the buses were going to the town centre, but it was soon communicated by the stewards that they were all just further down. Crowd moved quickly and buses were filled and sent on their way. Bus journey home was cooler as it was later in the day and I was closer to a window. Luck of the draw I suppose.

Bluntly, I don’t trust AFC/ACC/SPFL/Police Scotland to pull off an operation that slick. It also adds in another leg to everyone’s journey, which means you have to build in another buffer of time (if you’re sensible) which is, simplistically, less time taken having fun, and more time taken facilitating fun. More stress, more things to go wrong.

Even with the slickness, it just didn’t feel as relaxed as it should.

Don’t want to derail the thread or anything, but just putting out my thoughts on it. Feel free to fire it over to the Stadium thread if you think it’ll add to it! I probably won’t check on it though haha

[Lebowski]

Nah I avoid that thread like the plague.

To sum up, it was much further than Aberdeen’s will be:



Crowd size about the same (13,000ish) but the stadium obviously has a much larger capacity so they’ll have the infrastructure to cope more easily.

It broke up the day IMO and you felt isolated at the stadium. We went too early (about an hour and a half before KO) and there wasn’t anything to do before the game. No drink, massive queues for juice and food, but no opportunity to go anywhere else. Car parks and building sites for miles around. The bus journey there was hellish, felt about 30 degrees which is no joke in a kilt. Uncomfortable as there were hunners of us jammed onto the bus, mixed together so there were loudmouth English fans spraffing nonsense in their fucking annoying accents (I appreciate this is probably more my issue). Dropped us right at the ground which was good.

Bus home was better. Massive crowds but well marshalled down a purpose built pickup zone. At first it appeared that none of the buses were going to the town centre, but it was soon communicated by the stewards that they were all just further down. Crowd moved quickly and buses were filled and sent on their way. Bus journey home was cooler as it was later in the day and I was closer to a window. Luck of the draw I suppose.

Bluntly, I don’t trust AFC/ACC/SPFL/Police Scotland to pull off an operation that slick. It also adds in another leg to everyone’s journey, which means you have to build in another buffer of time (if you’re sensible) which is, simplistically, less time taken having fun, and more time taken facilitating fun. More stress, more things to go wrong.

Even with the slickness, it just didn’t feel as relaxed as it should.

Don’t want to derail the thread or anything, but just putting out my thoughts on it. Feel free to fire it over to the Stadium thread if you think it’ll add to it! I probably won’t check on it though haha

Read that virtually all transport to the stadium was shuttle buses due to increased terror alert for the WWC? No idea if that is right but it might be a lot busier than a normal Nice game if that's the case.

[RussellAnderson]

I should add to the above, the stadium itself was magic. If we can get anything close to that (scaled down obviously) then we’ll be doing well. It may be worth the change. Massive risk though. Still not made up my mind.

[RussellAnderson]

Read that virtually all transport to the stadium was shuttle buses due to increased terror alert for the WWC? No idea if that is right but it might be a lot busier than a normal Nice game if that's the case.

Aye our initial plan had been to park at the stadium and get the bus to and from the fan zone. We were turned away, but we couldn’t figure out why. That would make a lot of sense. There was acres of unused parking.

[Guest Flash]

20 hours ago, CaspianChris said:

Japanese commentary would be highly amusing given that no one would understand a single word .   Unless in the very unlikely situation  anyone understands the language.  

Spanish commentary for Argentina may well be understood by some if the took Spanish language classesat least.

 

Scottish commentary is available for Scotland games on BBC Alba.

[roverthemoon]

Lots of triggered men about. Must be shite feeling that threatened by women playing football that you’ve got to resort to some of the absolute fucking drivel on this thread. 

Thought we started well but the VAR decision seemed to knock our confidence and England dominated the rest of the half. Nikita Parris is a terrific player and we just couldn’t cope with her pace and skill. Really exposed the weakness of Nicola Docherty. Also I thought too many simple errors or dwelling on the ball just a bit too long handed them the initiative at times.  Second half was night and day. Great battling performance and that goal. Superb. Unfortunately England tightened up effectively and saw the game out but hugely proud of that second half. Definite progress from the 6-0 match obviously, with England forced to running down the clock at the corner flag. 

Plenty of room for optimism for the next two games here.  Kim Little and Erin Cuthbert are class acts and hopefully we see Caroline Weir and Lisa Evans further up the field against Japan to cause them problems. Japan  didn’t look that great today against Argentina. Also more of a role for Lizzie Arnot earlier would be good and I’d definitely bring in Kirsty Smith for Nicola Docherty. Hopefully with the first game nerves gone we can get something out of the next two games. 

Nice was fantastic. Great to see so many families, especially girls, out supporting the team and the fans created a terrific atmosphere. The fan zone was great with stuff for kids to do and the free shuttle buses to the stadium worked a treat. There was obviously security given what France has had to deal with in recent years but it was friendly and unobtrusive. I was at France 98 and it was great to be back at a tournament supporting a Scotland team after all these years.