Women’s Football Seetal in London | REGIOfussball.ch
Anticipation is known to be the greatest joy. The juniors from Seetal women’s football have been patient for almost a whole year until last Friday they could finally fly to London for the women’s EURO final.
When the trip was booked almost a year ago, the plan was for us to fly from Basel to London on Friday evening, July 29th.
Two flight cancellations later, we were ready at 5.10 a.m. at the train station in Sursee to take the train to Geneva. Not only was the departure time adjusted twice for us, but the place of departure was also moved from Basel to Geneva.
The additional loop over Geneva was not a big problem, mainly because the whole flight procedure went incredibly well. We encountered the predicted chaos neither in “Geneva Aeroport” nor in “London Gatwick Airport”. Everything went according to plan and was on time.
On the first day we went with the whole group to the Westfield Shopping Center in the White City district. With over 300 shops and 70 restaurants, it is the largest shopping center in Europe. For around 3 hours, the 22 players explored the shopping palace on their own, while the 5 supervisors reviewed the day’s travel over a beer.
On the second day, on Saturday, a crisp and entertaining city tour was on the program in the morning. Under the direction of Regula we visited Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye and Tower Bridge. Regula had prepared exciting information about the various sights, so not only did we take a lot of photos, but we were also able to expand our knowledge of London and its history.
After the city tour we went directly to the north of London – more precisely to the Emirates Stadium. There we attend the friendly game between Arsenal and Sevilla. “The Gunners” offered the 60,000 spectators in the sold-out stadium a great show. In the end it was 6:0 on the scoreboard – Gabriel Jesus was able to net four times on his debut in front of a home crowd.
On Sunday we then laced up our soccer shoes ourselves. After a 40-minute walk and a morning meal in a park, we reach the beautifully landscaped “Club des Sports” sports complex in the Acton district.
The “New London Lionesses FC” is waiting for us – an active team from the London & South East Regional Women’s Premier Division. We passed this international test with flying colours, and thanks to goals from Raja Meier, Eliana Selmonaj and Joana Widmer, we were even able to easily win the game 0:3. Nota bene: the first victory on English soil for women’s football Seetal 😉
The biggest highlight is on the program on Sunday afternoon. The EURO WOMENS FINAL 2022 at London’s Wembley Stadium. A sold-out hut with almost 90,000 spectators and the absolute dream affiche with the hosts England against arch-rival Germany.
We take the “Tube”, as the locals call the subway in London, to Wembley Park. Two hours before kick-off, tens of thousands of football fans from England were in the area and the atmosphere was electrifying. We could really immerse ourselves in the great atmosphere.
When Chloe Kelley shot the English side to make it 2-1 in the 110th minute, there was no end to the ecstasy in the wide sea of Wembley. Wow – that we were allowed to experience that. The huge party really started when the party whistle blew off 10 minutes later and England were declared European champions. The motherland of football has been waiting for a title for almost 60 years – now the Lionesses deliver! The jubilation knows no bounds – there was singing and dancing when there was no tomorrow. A peaceful football party – and the Seetal women’s football team was right in the middle of it with 27 people. So cool, we were able to experience it live on site!
The journey home is told briefly. We had a slight delay in Gatwick on our flight to Basel, but after a weekend like this we could easily put up with it.
It’s just terrific what we experienced together as a team in these three days. It was the perfect trip – it couldn’t have been better quickly. An experience that we will never forget.