Laundry was the most pressing concern for Team Red when we finally got to our Dusseldorf base for the last few days of my trip - all 3 of us were down the last t-shirt/socks etc, so we were grateful to be able to use the hotel 24hr housekeeping service, although as most folk know, such services don’t come cheap!
We’d definitely saved the best til last in terms of a hotel - plenty of talkSPORT’s team were already here at a Hyatt right next to the River Rhine that cuts a huge swathe through this part of Western Germany. The rooms are genuinely lovely and comfy - however if one was to nitpick about German hotels in general, it’s the quality of the pillows, or lack of. These pillows hold their shape about as well as ice cream on a hot plate - no support whatsoever for the neck or the head and I’ve rarely slept more than 4 or 5 hours a night on this trip. And I don’t think I’m alone in that assessment either amongst my colleagues!
As a commentator, you aren’t sure of your immediate plans once the group stages come to an end. You are at the mercy of the draw, and you also have to be ready to fill spaces once England’s path is assured for example (I know I don’t cover England games so I immediately look elsewhere for what my schedule might be.
As it turned out, it would be a swift return for us to Dortmund for Germany’s Round of 16 tie against Denmark and then a day later we’d nip down to Cologne to take in Spain v Georgia for my last game before hometime. But we did at least have a ‘rest day’ to get prep in for those two games. In my case, that meant looking at the Danes and the Spanish as I’d luckily seen Germany and Georgia already. And that is the ‘luck of the draw’ - in other circumstances I could easily have had 2 ties with no teams that I’d been able to watch up to this point. That’s where watching the games you’re not commentating becomes important, so you at least get a feel for each teams’ strengths, weaknesses and star players, that sort of thing. And, seeing as Denmark had been as conservative as England in their group match, the knowledge I gleaned from that night helped to inform the start of my homework.
But it wasn’t all homework. A Chinese restaurant just over the river was the setting for a get together of a few of the talkSPORT massive, and Ally McCoist joined us and joined in the fun. His positivity and sense of fun is utterly infectious on all around him, including me, and he was on terrific form as the evening went on. His music gigging history is almost as impressive as his goalscoring record, by the way!
As me Darren and Izzy were doing these 2 back to back games away from Dusseldorf, we’d get overnight stops in the two cities rather than shuttle back and forth each day. This made even better sense when we secured hotel rooms just across the way from the Dortmund stadium ahead of Germany/Denmark. My only concern was making sure I correctly remembered all these different room numbers I was staying in!
Weather conditions for our 2nd trip to the BVB Stadion could not have been more different to the hot, sweaty sun-drenched place we’d been to a few days before. You’ll no doubt have seen the footage of the cloudburst that halted the game for 20-odd minutes in the first half. Adrian Durham was with us and captured a fantastic picture of a fork of lightning on the horizon as the players were led to the tunnel and rain water cascaded from the gaps between the corners of the 4 stands. It was biblical. But we stayed on air live from the ground and me, Adrian and Darren passed the time talking about rain delays we’d experienced before whilst keeping listeners informed about the state of play. Once the rains had subsided and we’d resumed, Germany got the job done but VAR helped them out when required to deny Denmark a goal and to award them a penalty thanks to the ‘snickometer’ that UEFA appears to think is a legitimate way to deduce handballs in a stadium with 50,000 screaming fans - but don’t let me go on about VAR. You know I’m not a fan if you follow my socials - no need to rant any further here.
Cologne is another host city whose team plays below Bundesliga level, but a local volunteer who helped us carry our heavy equipment up to our commentary position told me that there was a waiting list of a decade and a half for season tickets to come and watch Fc Koln, which is just mind-blowing isn’t it? Back down the steep staircases we went to the media room to watch the start of England/Slovakia, which quickly descended into the usual on-pitch malaise and recriminations amongst ourselves about where it all went wrong.
And then along came Jude
By the time he’d levelled matters we were all back in the commentary position waiting to go on air with our Spain/Georgia coverage and so we could only catch fleeting glimpses of the ensuing extra time where Harry Kane helped the Three Lions prevail. It seems we just barely got the job done. Switzerland next up looking fresh as daisies by comparison. That’ll be fun, then…
It was fun for Georgia for 20 minutes or so having taken a shock lead over La Roja without even having a touch of the ball in the opposition box. The Georgian fans to our left had that moment of utter ecstasy taking the lead (albeit with an own goal) against an elite opponent and dared to dream as they’d done a few days before against Portugal. But Spain were persistent and smart, going gradually through the gears and the 4-1 win was the right result in the end.
And I got a right result with the pillows on offer at the Cologne hotel we stayed in. At last! 5 hours sleep rather than 4 LOL!
As I type I’m preparing to head home to Blighty - I have the World Matchplay Darts in Blackpool to start covering in less than a fortnight, so I guess I need to get a wash in back home and prep the arrers before repacking the KISS suitcase. Another major tournament worked at for talkSPORT, then! Here’s to many more as well - it’s a great team effort, augmented these days by those out here looking after our socials and presence online which just adds to the breadth of our coverage. I also must pay tribute to Team Red, Darren Bent and Izzy Minter, who’ve been fantastic company as we’ve hopped around this huge country via trains, planes and Ubers. I even kept the impressions down to a minimum so as not to annoy Izzy - well, certain impressions anyway… ;)
Danke Deutschland! This job is a total privilege - not a right.
Hope you’ve enjoyed my little blogettes from Germany - here’s to a great climax of Euro 2024 and keep it talkSPORT throughout.
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