The England Team come to Town…
I was asked for the Sun if I would like to go to the World Cup back in September 2009 and I was jumping up and down with delight but I then had ten long months of wait but I am now here and I am hoping to blog most of the jobs I will be covering over the next month or so. I am not with the accredited media so I will be mostly covering features and the news side of things so if Victoria Beckham turns up then that might keep me busy for a while. So far it has been super easy to get tickets and I have already managed to buy tickets for England’s matches against Algeria and Slovenia. It’s only one week until kick off…

Godfrey Moimane cheers on England outside the Cecil Tavern in Phokeng

After arriving in Johannesburg Sun reporter Oliver Harvey and I drove to the England training camp in Phokeng near Rustenburg. The England team had landed and were only hours away so we had planned to take some photographs of ‘England mania’ hitting this tiny South African village but there wasn’t any fans.  In fact, I don’t think anyone new that the team were arriving. Luckily the reporter had some England shirts and flags so with a bit of creativity we soon made some fun pictures. The England team even passed a Hippo on the journey so I climbed over barbwire fence and fell in deep mud just to get a picture of its head! After all this effort, none of the pictures were used in the paper!

Two year old Atlegang Molefe outside his mothers shop near the England training camp

Isabel Mondlame cooks beef at a street stall opposite the England team hotel

A Hippo looks on as the England team bus passes it on the way to Phokeng

Croatian fans do the Nazi Salute

I have been in the Croatian capital of Zagreb over the weekend looking at the Nazi behaviour of the Croatian football fans ahead of their match against England on Wednesday. A reporter and I attended Saturday’s home match against Belarus at the Maksimir Stadium . We were informed that every time the stadium played the music of fascist rocker Marko Perkovic the fans did the Nazi salute. Sure enough as the players ran on to the pitch a large majority of the fans did exactly this. I could only get a compact camera into the stands so I spent the next 90 minutes nervously trying to photograph a group of hard looking lads behind me whenever they sang the chant. It was really tough but I finally managed to get a few frames without them noticing. It was one of those really frustrating jobs as I could see people all around me doing these salutes but I was too far away to get a decent shot. I’m sure that they will do it at Wembley on Wednesday night.

A large majority of the crowd doing the Nazi Salute

I took this shot on my Canon G10 but it was far too dark and I was too far away.  The G10 is a great compact camera but I was in desperate need of my 5D and some decent lenses.

Barcelona lift the Champions league trophy

I haven’t photographed a football match for a few years now and the last time I did regular football was at Yeovil Town. Manchester United against Barcelona felt very different!

As I am a news photographer I wanted to concentrate on famous faces in the crowd and the Man United fans. This was hard as there were 180 photographers and my position couldn’t have been worse. I had one chance as we were allowed to the opposite side of the stadium to photograph the teams as they came out. Instead of doing this I concentrated on the crowd and managed to snap some famous faces including Prince William and Roman Abramovich with his girlfriend Daria.

Roman Abramovich with his girlfriend Daria

Prince William at the Champions League Final

Some of the picture agencies at the match had pitch side broadband to send their images around the world within seconds. Other photographers had runners to take their cards and send them from the press room. I had to wait for the half time whistle before running half way around the Olympic track to the press room and editing, captioning and sending my pictures within the ten minute break. I just about made it back in time!
During the game I shot some of the action and managed to get a nice shot as Samuel Eto’o scored the first goal.

Edwin Van Der Sar watches as Eto'o scores for Barcelona

I shot all the action on my 5d Mk11 and although this isn’t a fast camera I was very impressed with it.  I only had a 300m lens and took this picture of Barcelona’s second goal from the other side of the pitch.

Lionel Messi scores the second Barcelona goal

At the end of the game we were escorted to the podium area of the stadium and as the photographers picked there positions I concentrated on dejected Man United players before pushing my way through to snap Barcelona lifting the trophy.
Although I would have liked to have seen Manchester united win It did mean that the players wouldn’t be drinking and celebrating that evening and I didn’t have to sit outside the players hotel all through the night. I was secretly pleased!

Christiano Ronaldo is close to tears at the end of the match