Super Sunday

Wow how good it feels to wake up knowing that we are in the final. That no matter what happens we are guaranteed a medal and we have already made history for the WUGS Women’s Football Team. It’s a pretty special feeling but one we don’t want to become comfortable with and one we won’t settle for until we have our hands on that gold medal!

Going for a little paddle

The days between the game days can become quite repetitive at times, especially when we go through the same process of recovering but we know these days are equally as important as the games day as these are the days of rest and recovery to ensure we can maintain our form. We have a fantastic group of staff available on site, 24 hours a day to assist us in this process and a thank you must go to our physio Katie Williams who has done above and beyond to ensure our legs keep functioning and our bodies are kept in one piece. Today’s recovery consisted of a morning of stretching and foam rolling followed by a pool session. Although many of the girls aren’t the biggest fans of being at the pool I have to say I rather enjoy it and it provides an opportunity to get off-site and relax away from village life.

A sell-out crowd for this evening's game

This evening was spent watching the Men’s GB Football Team as they faced hosts Russia in a hotly anticipated semi-final in front of what was expected to be a sell-out crowd. Little did we know what to expect until we arrived at the game to be faced with crowds queuing to get in and I mean literally queuing. Not only were there people inside waiting to get in at the ticket barriers, the police were controlling the gate to stop the stampede of eager Russian fans pushing through. It seemed everyone and anyone from Russia had come out in force to support their boys to the final.

With the unexpected busyness we missed the kick off but as we walked into the ground the sound began to rise and there was without a doubt over 10,000 fans there all to support Russia against about 45 or 50 of us from Great Britain. The odds were clearly stacked against the boys, with their opposition worth a reported 12 million euros including 1 full international, 8 U21 Russian internationals and 2 Champion League players. Even Fabio Capello had come out to watch the game and was hidden away one of the VIP stands. But being the underdog is something us British have learnt to thrive on and the boys did not let this detract them from the task in hand. They were there to win the game and get to the final and we were there to cheer and support them all of the way.

The Team GB Men's Football Team

What a game it turned out to be. An evenly contested first half swung in the favour of Russia when the boys had a player sent off for a debatable second yellow. Despite contesting the ref’s decision, it remained and they would have to play the rest of the game with only 10 players. They held out until half-time but the biggest challenge remained in front of them. Second half started and after piling on the pressure the Russian’s broke the deadlock and went 1-0 up. This could have been a turning point in the game and the boys could have easily accepted that there was no way back but they dug deep, defended resiliently and even with 10 players managed to pull a goal back, it was 1-1. Do they go for the winning goal or hold out for penalties? We were on the edges of our seat and I think more nerves were felt by us that them. Even with a maximum 50 GB supporters, including a group that Aileen had managed to pick up in the toilet (they were British and had been visiting Kazan to work with the University and a local churches group) we were not going to be out chanted. We managed to generate quite some noise and I hope it spurred the boys on even more. We were right behind them, backing them to victory. The Russians sat in the stand next to us were surprised and kept trying to out chant us but it wasn’t going to happen, we would not lose voice!

The Russian’s kept piling on the pressure and the GB boys found themselves pinned in their own half. To make the game even more exciting a late two-footed challenge on our keeper saw the Russia striker see red and it was back down to 10 players per side. The final whistle drew closer and that meant one thing… penalties!

It's penalty time...

The spirit, determination and work rate from the boys to get them this far was incredible and their togetherness shone above all. They dug deep, worked hard and didn’t give up. Penalties came and the Russians missed their first penalty. The best start the boys could wish for, all they had to do now was put theirs into the back of the net and they didn’t fail. As the 5^th British lad stepped up to take his penalty we were on the edge of our seats, all he had to do was score and a place in the final was theirs. Boom the penalty hit the back of the net and we were crazy! We were absolutely elated for them. Looking around there was about 50 of us just cheering with a whole Russian crowd in silence at what had happened. You couldn’t have written this!

Let the celebrations commence

Driving back to the village we were all without a doubt inspired by what we had seen tonight. The boys desire to stick together was second to none and it showed as they walked away victorious. If we could take a little bit of what they had shown tonight and apply it in our game against Mexico tomorrow a gold medal would be ours.

One more sleep and the final will be upon us. It’s what the past 3 weeks have been building towards, the training camp at Warwick; the 4 days in Moscow followed by the 2 weeks in the Village have prepared us for tomorrow. We came to Kazan to go for gold and tomorrow that time will be upon us. What more could we want, this time tomorrow we could be crowned World University Champions and I know there is nothing less I want come that final whistle.

We can do this! Our time is now...

Going for Gold