Soccer Sunday

May 31st

My wife is nagging me about writing this post, so here goes:

If I had a Bucket List, today I would have been able to cross something off the list. For me, it has been a long time dream to go watch a soccer game in person. And I’m not talking FC Dallas here…a real game with players who are known throughout the world, well at least everywhere but here. Crystal, Luca, and I went to the Stadio Olimpico to watch an Italian League Serie A match of Roma vs. Torino. For those of you not familiar with the Roma squad, it touts the highly regarded Italian National Team players Totti, Panucci, and DeRossi. Also on the squad is Montenegran striker Vucinic. There are a couple of French and Brazilian guys too, but I mentioned the important guys already. Torino, on the otherhand, was in a must-win situation to avoid relegation. They did have one good player on their team though.

We arrived early to the stadium because there was no parking, which is typical for all of Rome. While walking in, we were studying our tickets and noticed that my ticket and Crystal’s ticket had different prices. Apparently, not only do women get free drinks at the bar, they get reduced prices for international soccer games…maybe I should get my old Halloween costume back out?? My uncle explained that because this was the last fixture of the season, with no implication to the final standings for Roma, the reduced price was an incentive to increase attendance for the meaningless game.

When we stepped foot inside, it was smaller than I expected, despite a 70,000 person capacity. The pitch was immaculate, and of course had to be, given that only days before Barcelona triumphed over the Ronaldos, er, Manchester United in the Champions League Final. Now there’s a spectacle that I would have LOVED even more. It was nice, even watching on TV, to see Ronaldo get his arrogant butt beat! But back to the Roma game. As the stadium filled up, there was one upper corner section of tightly packed-in Torino fans, roped in and surrounded by empty chairs and security guards. Whenever the Torino fans would start singing or chanting, the settling in Roma fans would quickly drown them out with jeer and whistles. At kickoff, the stadium was at about 75% capacity, mostly with avid Roma fans cheering, singing, and waving flags and banners. One of the giant banners covered a ten row section of people and Crystal and I wondered what the people underneath who couldn’t see anything were doing.

Section of Torino Fans

Note large banner covering 10 rows

My husband didn't mention the fire in the stands, see above

The game went well, with Roma pulling off a 3-2 victory. Totti and Vucinic both got goals. Here are the highlights if you are still reading this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWy4wvqk-M

After the game, we went back to Luca’s house to get ready for dinner, and that is when VomFest 2009 began for Crystal. Although the true cause is unknown, legend has it that it was either a bad oyster or sink water that got the party started. Once before dinner, twice at dinner, and a couple more times after dinner. That’s all I have to say about that.

Other than that, dinner was nice. We ate in Castel Gondolfo with Luca, Rosa, Guilia, Carlo, and Maria. We said our goodbyes that night and then had a sleepless night before the long trip home.