Football Game

We went to a Zaporozhye Metallurg football (soccer) game this evening. Steve and Dez went to the last game of their last season but today we all went. It was crazy! Tickets are just 15 greeven per person (kids are free) so that's $1.88 to watch Ukrainian Premier league football! The team they were playing was from Sevastopol, which is in southern Ukraine and the last time they played here the fans from there destroyed our McDonald's and it was closed for a while! We had to walk the long way around the block to get to the stadium because it was all blocked off by policemen and military wearing complete riot gear (minus the shields). They block off the street and then the visiting team and their fans are driven directly into this fenced off area where they close the gate and are then safe to get off their buses. The stadium itself is actually divided so that the visiting team and their fans are completely fenced off and barricaded in from the home team AT ALL TIMES - they have their own bathrooms and everything. It was crazy! 

 The game itself was pretty good - the fans were the best part for me! People watching was awesome - the group of people who sat in front of us were good for a few laughs - there were these two older, typical tough-looking Ukrainian men with their huge cups of beer but before they sat down on their seats they took out their crocheted seat protectors so they wouldn't have to sit directly on the seat! And then when Metallurg scored they danced! Actually danced - pointed fingers, leg kicks and all. When the crowd would get going I could actually feel the vibrations while sitting in my seat, it was intense - screaming and shouting and jumping. There is a section that is for the craziest fans and from where we were sitting it definitely looked like they were all shirtless. They had a drum and got crazy chants going, at one point there was a big sign with flares and smoke, they were wild. 

We got a drink and popcorn ($2.12 for Pepsi and candied popcorn) which made me laugh because we paid 7 greeven (87 cents) for a Pepsi where at home at say, a Bomber game, you'd probably be hard pressed to get a drink for 7 dollars! The game ended at 2-2 which probably prevented some potential rioting. 

This picture is blurry but you can see the row of cops standing shoulder to shoulder (left ish side of the picture) to block off the street so that no Metallurg fans could go near the Sevastopol fans. 

For an entire block on the walk towards our home there were cops standing every 20 feet, just in case. It was really a surreal to experience European football, and we're in Ukraine - I can't imagine being at one of the England teams games!!