I'm not really one for football. Its not that i hate the game . I just don't see why it should occupy so much time on TV, or take up so much space in the news papers. Its just a ball for god's sake! It's grown up men running after a ball.
It's grown men, being paid to run after a ball. Maybe, every now and then, a goal is scored, and when that happens, it seems to me like its pure coincidence; either the keeper is asleep, or the guy who scored the goal didn't actually even aim for the goal.
Again, I don't hate the game, and I don't mind playing for fun on nice summer days.
I just don't see how it somehow has gotten a status as the world's national sport.
Despite my doubts of the value of professional football, on Wednesday, I attended my first football game ever.
Of course there was a special reason; Norway was playing against Slovakia in our neighbouring city, Zilina.
I didn't come up with the idea to go there myself, our local "student organisation" Klamydia (gotta love the name) arranged everything :)
I was supposed to go there with the rest of the students in a bus, but ended up having to drive, as the infusion therapy at the hospital never seemed to end. I didn't mind the drive, Slovakia has a beautiful nature, and the road to Zilina winds by the river Vah in a valley where 2 mountain ranges meet.
Although beautiful, this stretch of road was earlier (dunno if it still is) one of the most accident prone in Slovakia, as the road only has 2 lanes, Slovaks seem to have a taste for overtaking that makes me shiver inside, and the fact that big rocks tended to fall down onto the road (and sometimes cars :().
When finally in the outskirts of Zilina, we started to notice ques and policemen. I didn't really give this any extra thoughts as neither policemen or ques are unusual on Friday afternoons (the fact that it was actually Wednesday didn't even cross my mind).
As we approached the stadium, we started to notice that cars were parked along the highway, and glum thoughts of not getting to see the match started to enter my mind.
As expected, after having tried to find a place to park for an hour, we ended up parking by the highway, having to walk quite a while to get to the stadium.
I feared that we'd have problems finding the other students, but as we were to be supporters, many had cleverly dressed up in Norwegian red and blue high-school-graduation dresses. Some had even brought a huge Norwegian flag, and the best, i think, was the huge bass drum one of the 6th-years had brought.
Songs and slogans were sun and shouted loudly, steadily accompanied by the dump sound of the bass drum.
I think that, although making up only 1/8th of the stadium, we made more sound than all the Slovaks:) As this was my first professional football match ever, I spent a lot of time being fascinated at the fact that the field seems a lot smaller that it does on TV, and the fact that we seemed to be "caged", as nets and high fences seemed to surround our section of the tribune.
Needless to say, Norway won 1-0. In my opinion, we were the best, and i think it was because we were there. Or they might just be a quite good team. Or they might suck, and just have been lucky. I honestly don't know. One thing i know for certain, though,is that the atmosphere was the best, filled with high spirited students and the fresh taste of victory.
During the game, I was fascinated at the Norwegian team's keeper choice of colours. Not that I plan on making this a fashion blog, but his shirt and shorts were bright neon yellow. In my mind, it seems like a very bad idea; if i was a keeper, I'd choose camouflage colours or something that'd make me as invisible as possible, so that the opponent would spot me :P
Apparently, my way of thinking isn't the right when it comes to football. Keepers often get to choose their outfit, and often, these bright, almost blinding colours (ahh,, new theory), are the colours of choice.
The bright colours distracts the players and makes them aim at the keeper instead of the places were the keeper is not and often gives the keepers markedly higher chances of catching the ball. (Or so I'm told)
To confirm this idea, I was told the tales of a guy playing in English football, Van der Saar, who wore colours like the Norwegian keeper, and apparently didn't let in a goal for 3,5 month (which is supposedly some kind of record)
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