Friday 19 June 3pm Much of what I’ve read about Slovenia has focused on the fact that it’s the smallest nation represented in the World Cup, so it seems unlikely that there can be that many Slovenians in London. I head to The Colonies near Victoria for the game against the USA. I miss kick-off but only because I remember to get a Father's Day card. Yes!
The pub doesn't look all that promising at first. It's every inch the London boozer, covered in St George’s Cross flags, and it turns out that the Slovenian link is largely commercial, thanks to the nearby Slovenian embassy. A clutch of marketing leaflets have been cunningly placed near the bar, extolling the virtues of Bled as a holiday destination - very attractive it looks too.
It’s not immediately obvious how many Slovenians have made it down for the afternoon kick-off. At first glance, there are a bigger number of Americans. It’s only when the Yankees start singing “When the Saints Go Marching In”, thereby provoking retaliatory chants of “Slovenia! Slovenia!” that it becomes clear that there's a good Slovenian crowd after all. They have the upper hand in the first half, leaving the Americans worried.
I spend much of the game chatting to Roger, who’s neither Slovenian nor American, but is in a celebratory mood having finished his osteopathy exams for the year. We get wired into a couple of bottles of Lasko, a sharp, citrusy beer which hits the mark perfectly.
At half time, with Slovenia sitting pretty at 2-0, I get speaking to Polona. She works for a large luxury hotel. As she says, this might sound glamorous, but it's anything but. The job, she says emphatically, “is shit”. Because it pays so badly, she hasn't been able to rent proper accommodation since being in London. She’s been living in a hostel for seven months.
Actually, the fact that the crowd is split makes for a great atmosphere. The game is a cracker, the advantage swinging back and forth, and with the Americans unlucky not to claim a win the Slovenian supporters seem pretty happy with the result.
But for the England fans who’ve been filtering in as the afternoon draws on, the main attraction is yet to come.
Or at least, that’s how it feels at the time: the less said about the “excitement” of that 0-0 draw with Algeria the better, eh?
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