As mentioned in a previous post I went to see the New York Giants take on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in the first NFL regular season game to be played outside of North America. As such tickets were hard to come by, but I got lucky and managed to get four when the third batch went on sale to people who had pre-registered (having just escaped from the meeting at work mere minutes before they appeared online).
Tickets secured I was rather happy, especially as I’d managed to get some seats in row 16 behind an end zone – which just sounded awesome without having ever been to Wembley. I then found out that we could also get tickets to the tailgate party that they were doing before the game – so why not!
Eventually game day rolled round and Dave, Phil, Nariman and I made the journey to Wembley. Outside Wembley Arena (where the tailgate was held to avoid being completely washed out due to the wonderful English weather) was the “Big JT” robot version of Dolphin’s defensive end Jason Taylor and a HGV full of XBox360s to play Madden on. We however wandered inside where there were NFL challenges that you could take part in (passing, kicking, receiving) some little areas styled to the two cities and also a stage with a rather poor cover band playing. Even at this stage the atmosphere was good with everyone seemingly looking forward to the event itself.
Not long after the gates opened for the stadium itself we wandered inside, and finding our way out into the seating we realised just how close we were. With the front 5 rows or so being closed off (due to the limited visibility that you’d get being that low down at an American Football game) we were about 10 rows back, pretty much in line with the edge of the pitch and very near the tunnel through which the teams would later enter at the start of the game.
Having taken in the initial moment of going out into the seats we wandered back inside and experienced the worst part of the day; Wembley’s “food”. At £8 for a meal it was expensive and rather crap. The burgers came in a disguise with nicer bread so as to hide the rest being crap – and the chicken was very dry… but this was soon forgotten about as the pre-game show started. This involved a performance by The Feeling, the national anthems and of course the coin toss – where the biggest boo of the day was heard as John Terry was announced as a guest captain for the Giants, and then the biggest cheer as Lewis Hamilton was also announced to be there (whilst being shown to be tiny next to the players).
Kick off and the game ensued with the game being quite scrappy. We saw a number of dropped passes and a missed kick towards the start of the game – with the rain not helping anyone (I mean, who designs a stadium with a roof that doesn’t close all the way). Even without a particularly great set of play on the field the atmosphere was fantastic with the crowd really getting into it and numerous Mexican waves going round and round the stadium.
Half time arrived with a half-time show. No Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunctions or crazy stages as seen at the Superbowl here; instead we had the band of the Royal Engineers play – opening with the theme from Rocky. It was soon over though and the second half started… well… after the streaker who had dressed as a referee and run to the 50 to do some exercise had been removed from the field.
With the score being 13-3 to the Giants and the game drawing to a close it seemed that the Dolphins were destined to continue on their losing streak – but there was a glimmer of hope towards the end when Lemon found Ted Ginn Jr in the end zone at the other end of the stadium to bring them within three points with only 90 seconds or so to go. The on-side kick then followed… with the crowd (or at least us and those around us) hoping that they’d manage it and we’d get to see some overtime… but it promptly slid over the wet grass and out of bounds for a Giants possession and a series of knees, which also attracted boos from the crowd who wanted to see some more action.
We then wandered back through the crowd to the tube and headed home having had an awesome day. With any luck we’ll have another game at Wembley next season and I’ll get tickets to that too.
During this whole thing I managed to get some (rather crap admittedly) photos, which can be found in my Flickr set.