Yesterday, it was Italy against Croatia. This time I didn't get the train. After the nightmarish journey back from Gdansk - from which my back still hasn't recovered - this time I managed to get a lift with Gabriele Marcotti.
The problem is that Polish roads aren't much better than Polish trains and so it was two hours or so before be hit the motorway. Apparently the first section of the route was supposed to be constructed by a Chinese company, but never having dealt with European planning regulations and planning controls before, they were unable to finish on time. So we crawled on single-lane road behind a Tesco lorry.
The next problem was the issue of parking permits. It recurs at every tournament and neither Uefa nor Fifa ever seem able to resolve it.
Essentially you need a sticker with the match number on it to be allowed into the media car-park. The problem is that you have to pick up the sticker form either the media centre or the accreditation centre which are, not surprisingly, right next to the stadium. So we trailed round and round the outskirts of Poznan, being sent back and forth by a series of bewildered stewards and police officers before finally we found sufficient stewards in a row who understood the sticker issue to let us through. Even then, we were left parked illegally on pavement while collecting the vital inch square of shiny hologram.
Still, we survived and made it in to a stadium that is smaller than those in Warsaw or Gdansk, less obviously attractive, but has way more character than either. There's always something pleasing about a stadium that eschews symmetry and with three tiers at one end and two at the other, this felt a ground meant for playing in, rather than an architect's dream.
The stadiums and the football have been superb; if the standard is maintained, this might even come to rival Euro 2000 as the greatest tournament of modern times - although we've seen tournaments before that have flickered in the group stages and faded. It's easy to knock Uefa when things go wrong - see the parking passes - but they should be praised on two counts.
First of all, the ball. After the nonsense of the Jabulani, which swooped and dipped almost at random, beyond the control of even the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Tango 12 is excellent. That it was going to be was apparent from the Cup of Nations, which yielded five goals direct from free-kicks with the Comoequa, which is the same structure as the Tango 12 but with different patterning, as opposed to none with a Jabulani in Angola two years earlier. Andrea Pirlo's strike against Croatia was the first goal direct from a free-kick so far in this tournament, but more will come.
That players trust the ball can be seen in the quality of the crossing, which is one of the reasons there have been so many headed goals so far (12 in the first 10 games).
The other is the use of officials behind each goal. They are widely misunderstood - largely, it seems, because they communicate with the referee via their radio headsets rather than with flags - but as well as helping with line-calls, they also may have helped cut down on penalty-box grappling and wrestling.
Forwards are thus able to escape their markers more easily, with the result that heading at goal becomes easier.
Recommended Bet
England finally broke a 43-year jinx to beat Sweden in November, in what turned out to be Fabio Capello's last game in charge. Traditionally games between the teams are tight, low-scoring affairs, two similar football cultures cancelling each other out.
Swede's defending on set-plays against Ukraine was bad enough though, that over 2.5 goals in the game at 2.265/4 may be worthwhile. In the other game meanwhile, the 4.131/10 available on Ukraine to beat France looks long.