The Boleyn Ground at Upton Park

Day -765. World Cup2018

I've heard things in passing on the radio or TV in the past that have stuck with me, comments that were not the main point of what I was listening to or watching. One of them was when the former Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham and England centre forward Jimmy Greaves said that there was nothing better than watching football at Upton Park, just to listen to the East London wit in the stands. Upton Park, or better the Boleyn Ground in Upton Park will see West Ham play their last match ever there tomorrow. It's one of those iconic England stadiums which has maybe been romanticised a little too much when like many other stadiums it was where football supporters were packed in with little regard for their comfort. And, if you look past the hooligan years, it had the atmosphere that other stadiums didn't have, which came through even when watching a match on TV.

I never made it to the stands of Upton Park. My grandparents lived in Essex and I remember taking the train in and out of London with my Mum for a day trip while we were visiting in Essex. On the way out of London we were on the Underground line that went through West Ham, Upton Park and East Ham, all the way out to the end of the line, Barking or Upminster, I believe, depending on what line we were on. Since I knew my geography through football team locations I always made a note to myself to remember that when I would one day go to watch West Ham to get off at Upton Park and not West Ham. East Ham just amused me. East Ham! It was only West Ham, I thought, because they had a football team. But East Ham?  Even at my young age at the time, the thought of watching football at Upton Park fascinated me. I wanted to get off the train at Upton Park, even just to walk around and see the stadium.  I'd head about the West Ham legends but my time was more Tony Cottee then Trevor Brooking.

Upton Park made me think about World Cup stadiums I would go to one day. The Maracana, in Brazil, was high on the list. One hundred and fifty to one hundred and eight thousand people in one stadium, watching Brazil! Wembley. Done. Olympic stadium in Rome, Done. But those are the only two big ones. The Azteca in Mexico City, scene of one of the best World Cup Finals of my nine watched, Argentina-West Germany 1986. That would be amazing and loud.  I loved the Spanish stadiums in 1982, how compact and loud they all seemed to be. But I was fascinated by everything about that World Cup. I did get a tour, of sorts,  of the Bernabeu in Madrid in 2002. I didn't get to see the inside, or much of the outside really. My wife and I stopped in Madrid as part of our honeymoon and met some old Spanish friends. After a night out we followed in our car as one of them drove ahead back to his apartment. At one point he slowed down, leaned out the window and yelled, "that's the Bernabeu". The what? we thought as we glanced back for a quick glimpse.

Unfortunately, I cant think of one Russian stadium I wish I was at. Maybe they''ll all grow on me by 2018. And maybe I'll have memories of Moscow or Sochi's brand new state of the art stadiums. Maybe. But for now here's a little bit of the past, a few thousand Eastenders signing and to them forever blowing bubbles.