First Time in Moscow, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Semifinal - Croatia 2, England 1
Friday, July 13, 2018: I’ll come back to the game momentarily…it was pretty awesome. Kieran Trippier put England ahead early with a sick free kick right in front of where I was sitting. But Croatia’s Ivan Perisic tied it with 20 minutes to play, and Mario Mandzukic scored the winner in overtime to send Croatia to the Final, where they’ll meet France.
As some can imagine, I'm spending just about all day walking around. Like, 12+ hours and easily 10+ miles a day. I'm not in my room long enough to write these, but I'm trying to share some stuff on instagram, including as a story...and some on Twitter. I haven't really been able to decide what's the best way to share since I think just about everything is interesting and would love for those of you who aren't here with me to see some of it. That said, writing these can be a pain, haha...so I'll try to keep it shorter and post images.
I'm less than a block from Red Square, and Red Square is ridiculous crowded with tourists. But of course the first thing I did after checking in on Wednesday was walk right into it. The images we've heard of or seen on TV during the World Cup - the Kremlin, St. Basil's Basilica - I saw them (from the outside).
There's also a 5-6 block pedestrian street that ends at the Red Square that is covered in overhead strings of lights and packed - day and night - and is basically the center for all World Cup travelers to wander, eat and drink, break into chants, and drink some more. This is Nikolskaya St.
Monday was no exceptions. The England fans slowly started taking it over - draping their flags on any open wall or fence, and then loudly voicing their support for England, their dislike of Germany, and telling everyone that soccer was ‘coming home.’
The Croatian fans were just as visibility, maybe because of their tablecloth-like checkboard jerseys. They also took over select bars, and chanted, until they realized the English were trying to prove how much louder they were. It was funny because once the Croatian fans decided to chill and drink, you'd walk by one of their bars and a small group would start somewhat quietly chanting, 'England, England, sorry for tonight, sorry for tonight.' A warning - enjoy your day.
And that confidence and tone was displayed on the field. The stadium, by the way is really impressive. It's kinda of a pain to get into because of the multiple security and ticket checkpoints, and since everyone basically had to enter from the same side. Also, they still have a Lenin statue out front (they like Lenin, Peter the great, and others around here - lots of statues).
I sat behind the Croatian fans, and it was awesome. It was like they willed their countrymen to come back and then score that winning goal. All three goals were scored in front of us. I also stayed inside the stadium for an hour watching them celebrate - and interestingly enough the English fans also stayed there a long time - chanting their appreciation to their team for a fun run.
It was around 1:30a by the time I got to Nikolskaya, and it looked like the Croatian party would never end. At the same time, the two main bars that hosted the English fans earlier had closed - maybe they ran out of beer?
I then walked through a mostly empty Red Square, where the sun was already coming up around 3am, before calling it a day.
I've spent the last couple days walking around, taking photos, and people watching. Last night the Argentina fans that are still here got into a chant showdown with a few Brazilians - and crushed them. The Brazilians couldn't get into a second line on a chant before the Argentinians jumped all over them with a louder song. It was fun. I loved it!
This morning the line to get into the Kremlin was two hours long, and it doesn’t interest me enough to wait that long. So I walked down to Red October (I found it, stop searching, haha) - which is like a hipster-style warehouse district - and Gorky Park (it's like a Central Park) - where there was a 4v4 tournament going on a newly installed Nike cage/park. And then Stanley Cup champion and Russian hockey star Alex Ovechkin showed up (he was there doing an interview with Fox for back in the states).
It's really interesting being in a country we hear so much about in the news, and seeing it with my own eyes, and trying to get input from locals, and making my own interpretations. So I'll leave my thoughts for chats.
That's it for now. I'm heading back out.
