 My soccer experiences in Italy
This past summer I stayed nearly 3 months in Italy, and was able to see many games. Here are some highlights and impressions:
1. Parma - Inter 0-2.
This was do-or-die last match of the season for both teams: Parma to avoid relegation, and Inter to win for the scudetto. The controversy started long before the match, where the Inter supporters were banned from the game. As if the significance of the match wasn't high enough already, the athmosphere was even tenser as thousands of ticketless Inter supports stood hours before the game outside the stadium.
I'm not a fan of either of these teams, so I had no ticket either. However, I love these high drama games, so I took the trip up to Parma from Bologna with a small hope of somehow getting a ticket. Outside the stadium, the tensions started to grow as desperate Inter supporters started to clash with police, and provoking some of the usually peaceful Parma supporters. I decided to stay out of trouble and sat down with a beer about 100 yards from the action on one of the side-streets. As I was enjoying my beer, a guy comes over offering me to buy a ticket. It was overpriced of course, but I couldn't believe my luck. My happines was short-lived. Suddenly, someone yells "Via, via, Via" - in other words, RUN. Sure enough 100's of Intersupporters were chased by the police in full riot gear in my direction, but I managed to run fast enough to avoid the commotion.
After that incident, I had enough of the outside stadium action, as I new things would be even more dangerous as game time would approach. As I was about to enter the stadium it started raining like crazy...not just heavy rain, but I'm talking about monsun like downpour. Everyone got drained, stadium halls filled with water, and it was total chaos. The ticket guards barely bothered checking tickets (I'm sure a lot of people were able to sneak in)and masses of supporters ran into the soaked stands.
The game itself was magestic. As a Juventus supporters, I would have preferred Parma to win, but I must admit I still get chills when thinking about how the Inter players and bench exploded in pure childlike exctasy after Ibra scored the first liberating goal. Parma tried their best, but it was just Ibra's and Inter's night. The pitch was of course stormed by the Inter supporters after the final whistle, while the Parma fans were of course angrier than hell.
2. Sampdoria - Juventus 3 - 3:
The best game perhaps, was the Samp-Juve game in Genoa. I took the 4 hours train ride to the city, hoping to have just as good luck scoring tickets as the day before in Parma. One thing about Italian stadiums, by the way, is that you can's just assume that you can go to the stadium a few hours in advance and buy tickets; no sometimes you have to go to a totaly different location, like - in this case - downtown Genoa. It's true like they say that going to a game in Italy is a whole day affair. Finding tickets, making it to the stadium at least a couple of hours ahead, and - in this case since we were the visiting supporters - being held back by the police for an hour and a half after the game. That really sucked!. Otherwise, I finally got to realize my dream of being in an away game with the ultras from Juve. The chants were massive, and it was fun to sparr with the Samp supporters, who I must say are some of the better ones in Italy. The only dissapointment - and this was not only true in this game - is that rasism is still very common in Italy. Black players gets boooos, and monkey sounds yelled after them, and that makes me very sad. It spoiled some of the fun, but unfortunately this kind of things is very present in Italy to this day.
3. Roma - Inter 2-1 (Italian cup final)
I've been to Olympic stadium before, but never during a Roma game. I had the unfortunate experience of standing with Inter fans (it was the only tickets left for the game - that's my excuse)but I must say it was impressive when the whole stadium, especially the section behind the goal starts singing. The massive volume and power of the chants are just bone chilling, and nothing like it anywhere else. The game itself was great...nice to see Roma getting a little revenge on Inter who beat them to the title a week before.
A few other games in brief:
Fiorentina - Glascow Rangers (UEFA semi-final) 5-4 on PK:
Not a great game, but yet an interesting experience at a stadium I've never been to before in Florence. The Rangers fans were the best though, partying throughout the city (and drinking of course) the whole day (the game started 8:45), making new Italian friends, and just having a jolly good time.
Bologna - ? (Don't remember the team now) - Not much to say about the game, except that this must be one of the worst Stadiums in Italy. The seats were leaning down (actually the whole stadium was) and it felt like you were going to fall down any minute. Horrible stadium with a disaster just waiting to happen.
Siena - Juventus 1 - 0. Have you ever seen a puppy in the rain? That's how I must have looked like as I traveled all the way to Siena without being able to find a ticket to my favorite team. At least the stadium is built such that you can actually see part of the game through the gate, but it still didn't prevent it from being one of the sadest days in my supporter history. Oh...and Juve lost!
That's it! Tells me about your soccer experiences in Italy!
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