Yokohama Stadium tour and Marinos Game – 30 Sept
This morning was a slightly later start, leaving the hotel at 9.30am for the port city of Yokohama. The weather had turned again and it was cool and wet with no sign of the rain easing up. We headed straight for the Yokohama (Nissan) Stadium, the sight of the 2008? World cup final between Germany and Brazil. After having a look at the empty stadium and seeing a couple of groundsmen working on the longjump pit in the rain – treading the sand down with their feet, we headed for the dressing rooms. Oh before then, the elderly gentl
eman who was our guide took us to the vip seats and asked the kids to sit down. After they sat, he went round and told a few of the kids who had sat in their seat at the cup final. One boy sat in the seat Pele had sat in, one of the others Maradonna, and so on. So then there was a lineup to sit in the various seats and even the parents got into it and seemed genuinely excited.
After that we made our way down to the dressing room. At the back of each cubicle was a photo of the Brazilian player that used that particular cubicle and their signature (behind Perspex of course) and they had shirts of each player hanging up in the cubicle. Everyone wanted their photo taken with the shirts of the greats, like Roberto Carlos, Ronaldiniho, Ronaldo and Cafu who was the captain at the time.
For lunch we were driven to a refurbished brickworks that is now a trendy Japanese tourist spot for shopping and dining. We wandered around, again in the rain, and after a bit of window shopping, hopped back on the bus and headed to the Yokohama Marinos training ground.
When we arrived, we saw many groups of kids training, but the cutest was a group of 3 year olds training hard. This club, the Yokohama Marinos, is one of the J League teams and so they, like the Tokyo Verdy team, have an academy where the best of the best of all age groups train. We knew it was going to be another set of tough matches, once again in the heavy rain, but the kids really tried their hardest and again came away with their heads held high.
Grant’s form was continuing to improve and so was his groin thankfully, and he came off the field exhausted and satisfied that he had played well. The strapping and iceing had done it's job and he played with confidence and his touch was returning. At the end during the photo phase, he was surprised that the kids were almost fighting to stand next to him. After the official photo, I took over some ‘snakes’ that we had brought from OZ for the kids to share (as the furry Koalas had run out long ago), and I asked Grant if he wanted to have a photo with one of the kids he played against, and as I was about to take the photo, about 15 kids swarmed and were chanting 'Messi! Messi!'. I couldn’t understand it, and when I asked our wonderful interpreter Ken why he was so popular, he said that the boys al
l thought he looked like ‘Messi’ (famous football player for all you non footballers), and so wanted to have their photo taken with him. When we finally left the field, they were all shouting out, ‘bye Messi’ and waving frantically. Grant would like to think that it was his football that reminded them of Messi, but alas, I think it was his face. Amazing to think that one or more of those cute little boys will be the next ‘Nakamura’ or ‘Honda’. Once again, we left the ground wet and tired but satisfied.
eman who was our guide took us to the vip seats and asked the kids to sit down. After they sat, he went round and told a few of the kids who had sat in their seat at the cup final. One boy sat in the seat Pele had sat in, one of the others Maradonna, and so on. So then there was a lineup to sit in the various seats and even the parents got into it and seemed genuinely excited.
After that we made our way down to the dressing room. At the back of each cubicle was a photo of the Brazilian player that used that particular cubicle and their signature (behind Perspex of course) and they had shirts of each player hanging up in the cubicle. Everyone wanted their photo taken with the shirts of the greats, like Roberto Carlos, Ronaldiniho, Ronaldo and Cafu who was the captain at the time.For lunch we were driven to a refurbished brickworks that is now a trendy Japanese tourist spot for shopping and dining. We wandered around, again in the rain, and after a bit of window shopping, hopped back on the bus and headed to the Yokohama Marinos training ground.
When we arrived, we saw many groups of kids training, but the cutest was a group of 3 year olds training hard. This club, the Yokohama Marinos, is one of the J League teams and so they, like the Tokyo Verdy team, have an academy where the best of the best of all age groups train. We knew it was going to be another set of tough matches, once again in the heavy rain, but the kids really tried their hardest and again came away with their heads held high.
Grant’s form was continuing to improve and so was his groin thankfully, and he came off the field exhausted and satisfied that he had played well. The strapping and iceing had done it's job and he played with confidence and his touch was returning. At the end during the photo phase, he was surprised that the kids were almost fighting to stand next to him. After the official photo, I took over some ‘snakes’ that we had brought from OZ for the kids to share (as the furry Koalas had run out long ago), and I asked Grant if he wanted to have a photo with one of the kids he played against, and as I was about to take the photo, about 15 kids swarmed and were chanting 'Messi! Messi!'. I couldn’t understand it, and when I asked our wonderful interpreter Ken why he was so popular, he said that the boys al
l thought he looked like ‘Messi’ (famous football player for all you non footballers), and so wanted to have their photo taken with him. When we finally left the field, they were all shouting out, ‘bye Messi’ and waving frantically. Grant would like to think that it was his football that reminded them of Messi, but alas, I think it was his face. Amazing to think that one or more of those cute little boys will be the next ‘Nakamura’ or ‘Honda’. Once again, we left the ground wet and tired but satisfied.
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