OOPS. I forgot to blog yesterday, sorry sorry and all that.
It's been a busy few days, today I'm taking the time out to (finally) write my reports for LFCLF from the France and the England game, and might go see a film later.
Going back to Monday, and an early start to catch the bus to Ottawa for the England game! England kicked off at 5pm, the bus was at 9am and we arrived in Canada's capital around half 11.
I had to collect my ticket from the team hotel so we headed straight there and immediately bumped into Lianne Sanderson. I got my ticket, we dropped stuff off at the hotel and had some lunch.
We got to the ground around 2 hours before kick off, and met with some others for a pre-match drink before heading into the stadium - a PROPER stadium might I add. The one here in Montreal is odd, it's completely indoors, seating goes around only 3/4 of the ground, it's old and they've tried to cover it up by pinning huge banners over the crumbling parts. Ottawa's stadium was nice, 2 stands along either touchline - no stands behind the goal, as yet. Talking to an Ottawa native before the game the football team that plays there has only been in existence for ~18 months so I suppose they will end up building on it.
The afternoon sun was absolutely baking, my seat was amazing - very close to the touchline and right behind the England bench. I had a quick chat with a very proud Siobhan Chamberlain's mum before the woman to my right kindly offered me some suncream. I think she probably saved my life, or at least my arms and legs and nose from being frazzled to a crisp.
THE GAME. At half time, England drew some criticism for taking seemingly the same approach as the France game. While not the best football to watch, for me it was understandable with the heat. I thought we were being clever and standing off Norway, letting them play and tire themselves out in the unbearable heat. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't - I'm not a football manager! But when the teams emerged for the second half, and Norway went a goal up before England pulled one back through Steph Houghton and then Lucy Bronze scored the goal of the tournament to put us 2-1 ahead, the Norwegians looked absolutely knackered, they had nothing left to give.
Full-time whistle goes and England are into the quarter-finals! To face host nation Canada in Vancouver no less, me I'll be watching in a bar in Montreal somewhere, unless I find a money tree between now and Saturday. I'll be watching France v Germany on Friday night and then hopefully, HOPEFULLY (like please pray for me) watching the winner of that tie take on the USA before flying to NYC a week today.
I'm gutted I won't get to see England again on this trip, but I've seen Fara Williams score the winning goal against Colombia, Lucy Bronze score an absolute belter and Jill Scott boss it after coming on as a sub against Norway. My favourite England players, so I'm happy with my lot there.
After the game we cheered the team back into their hotel, and Lucy, Jill, Karen Bardsley and Mark Sampson arrived a little later and came over to shake our hands. Which was cool. We then went to watch the second half of the USA - Colombia game, arriving just as Abby Wambach missed her penalty.
The following day, I explored Ottawa a little. Taking the long way around to walk to the museum of Canadian history, I didn't get to take in the whole museum. The part I did see was pretty interesting, call me naive but I learnt a lot about the first humans in Canada - the aboriginals and it was fascinating to learn about their way of life, which still continues in parts of Canada today! Mainly on the west coach but also over here on the east.
Before getting the bus back to Montreal, I went into a book shop and there was a whole section of books with 'Heather's Pick' stickers on. This amused me greatly and I ended up buying 3 more books. Bringing the total bought on this trip to 10, my luggage is going to be heaaaavy.
This morning the power went in my hotel, so I took a walk to get some food. The power is back now but keeps going on and off. There's a documentary on the Canadian national team on the tv, am I the only English person to like John Herdman?
I have no idea what I'm doing tomorrow yet, but I'm hoping to go to some more museums!
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