A Singaporean Road to World Cup Russia 2018 Part III

This article is about my journey and virgin experience of watching a World Cup in a foreign country. Helming from Singapore, this is how my experience went.

The atmosphere was deafening. The chatter of thousands could be heard resonating through the stadium ground and they were in all kinds of languages; Spanish, English, Russian and a plethora of unidentifiable languages. They were excited, jumpy and full of anticipation. Beers were passed, and hotdogs handed out. On the pitch, when the two large Panama and England flags unfurled and the players emerged from their dressing room, the roar raised a few decibels.

I, too, couldn't stay down in my seat. In my mind was, THIS IS THE WORLD CUP. I excitedly chatted up with the woman sitting next to me, a Russian as it turns out, from Nizhny Novgorod itself, the place where I was watching the World Cup live. Russians turned out in droves, partly due to the cheaper tickets but to also revel in the football. I knew several Russians who do not watch football on any other day, but during the World Cup season, everyone does.

When the national anthems of the countries played the respective fans sang to their hearts. In particular, due to the numerical superiority of the Panama fans, I could feel the plastic seats resonate when the Panama national anthem played out; a reflection of the pride of the people of Panama whose country have long been unrepresented in the World Cup. The end of the national anthem was accompanied with more clapping and cheering and the occasional sounds of plastic horns.

Kick Off

And before long, the players went to their respective positions in anticipation of kick off. The countdown commenced with the crowd shouting with the stadium announcer; 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... PEEEEP!

The cheer rang out and reactively I let out a primal shout and started clapping wildly. The emotions were running wild. Everyone was expressing their feelings on the match as blatantly as possible; when a foul was committed, the crowd whined, murmured and some booed. When a player was clearly adjudged to be feigning a foul, the crowd murmured. I too couldn't help but talked, sometimes to myself, "That's not a foul. Come on!" and other times to the people seated around me. The crowd, it turns out, is really impartial. Everyone was in the spirit of the game in essence. And the players duly delivered.

The score line is as it has been immortalised; 6 - 1 but it was no means a one-sided defeatist style of play from Panama. The Panama players attacked from the get-go with enthusiasm and gusto. They had their chances with their quick lightning counter attacks but at the end of the day, England's quality and excellent football tactics gave them a deserving win. At half-time, it was 5 - 0. 
After each England goal, the iconic "Football's Coming Home" song by The Three Lions played across the stadium. There was only two England fans near my seats, and they celebrated wildly after each goal, pumping their beers in the air, spilling them and hugging each other. Then they would jump around and sing to the iconic lyrics. In truth, England had a decent shot at World Cup glory in Russia in 2018, as they had a decent team and formation under Gareth Southgate plus a lot of the major contenders were eliminated early on. But, as it turns out, they were outplayed in the Semi Finals.

Half time came and a large proportions of the stadium visitors went to get a refill of their beers or buy a hotdog snack. I went out to the toilet but I also got myself an ice lemon tea and a hotdog from the counter, setting myself back by 400 roubles (about SGD$9). Buying myself a set enabled me to take home a limited edition World Cup drink cup. There were three different kinds though for different kinds of drinks; a non-alcoholic, a Budweiser and a Russian branded beer. By the end of my World Cup stay, I had collected to of them. After getting my due refreshments, a must after such an exhilarating match, I went back to my seat to enjoy the music and crowd in the stadium at halftime.

The Panama fans did not get disheartened after each goal was scored against them. They still cheered on every counter attack and possession their team had with enthusiasm and their team's perseverance and attacking philosophy prevailed in the end with the team scoring a solitary goal towards the end. That resulted in the stadium erupting. Even the England fans were congratulating the Panama fans. It turned out that it was the first Panama goal in the World Cup! History was in the making!

End

At the end, the people left the stadium with almost the same enthusiasm as when they had arrived, having seen a breathtaking and memorable match. The same official entertainers entertained; the drummers, the cheerleaders and the volunteers. I strolled past them, took photos when I had the opportunity and just soaked into the atmosphere. As I walked with the crowd, a portion of them sang out in chants and cheers. A popular one was "Ros-si-a! Ros-si-a!" After meandering with the crowd, we made our way to where Ayub was waiting,  at the place where he had dropped us off. He had watched the match on his phone (phone data being cheap here in Russia) and with large help from a translating app, we talked about it as we drove the long journey back to Moscow.