Photo: Thomas Hautmann / FOX Soccer

By Thomas Hautmann

On Friday, the FOX Soccer crew headed to Wembley for a walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s big game. The stadium is quite a sight: you can see the whole of it as soon as you get off the Underground stop at Wembley Park. I’ve never been to London before, but I do have seen plenty of modern stadiums and have to say Wembley is amongst the finest I’ve been to. Sadly, I’d never been to the old one.

Rob Stone, Eric Wynalda, and Warren Barton, visibly jetlagged yet looking dapper as ever, made their way to their little studio, the press box and finally on to the pitch, where I reverted back to being 10 years old, feeling as happy as a clam. And then depressed because I never realized my dream of actually playing on such a perfect pitch.

The complex around the stadium is just now starting to set up shop. The plethora of stands is beginning to stock up on the inventory of flags, kits, badges and fan scarves (or schalls, if you will). The food stands, too, are beginning to pile away hundreds of bottles of ketchup, mayo, and jars of wieners. That’s right, hot dogs in a jar. I know what I’m not having on Saturday. And I sincerely hope that the thousands of German fans hoping to score some brats or curry wursts at the game aren’t going to catch wind of this. That’d be like Italians getting duped into eating a pie at Little Caesar’s.

Photo: Thomas Hautmann / FOX Soccer

In London center, it seems as though the activity has picked up slightly, but in general it still doesn’t really “feel” like it’s hosting the Champions League final in just a couple of days. So far we’ve only come across a handful of German fans, and one very excited presenter for German TV station RTL and his cameraman. Clearly, the “German invasion” which so many tabloids have warned about, is still a day or so away.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with Gus Johnson, the voice of Saturday’s broadcast. Gus has really done his homework on the two German teams, which our whole production will benefit from. My job now is to help him with the admittedly difficult pronunciations of the players’ names. Ilkay Gundogan, Marcel Schmelzer, and Mario Gotze’s replacement, Kevin Grosskreutz don’t exactly roll off the tongue. Gus is really looking forward to another great match at Wembley— after calling Wigan’s dramatic win in the FA Cup final — and I expect him to do a great job.