AS Roma - Torino (20-12-2017)

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What is an Inter fan doing at a Cup of Italy match between Roma and Torino, even at 5:30 pm of a working day? He takes a friend who is a Torino fan, lives in Finland and has not seen a match of his team for some time. For him it was the first time at the Olympic Stadium, for me the first time in the away fans' sector, in 43 years of stadium attendance.

We leave the airport at around 4.30. The GPS expects us to arrive in 30 minutes, but you know, it's optimistic, and then we will have the parking problem. Everything is easy up to the last 5 km, but then for those we take almost an hour! We arrive in front of the stadium when the match has already starter, but we still see people coming in. This time the parking lot goes a bit better than the last times (eg here), because not all the stadium parking lots are closed, only those closest to the stadium.

We arrive at the gates around 5.50. They check the documents and tell us to keep them ready, because they will be checked again. In fact, they check them back at the turnstiles and then a third time at another barrier shortly thereafter. I point out that it seems very difficult to replace a person in those few meters, they answer me that they agree, but these are the orders. They also tell me that they are not doing this only in the away fans' sector, but it never happened to me. Another reason to check several times might be that they do not trust the stewards, but even in this case I could understand  a double check, not a triple one.

We finally enter the stadium at 28th minute of the game. I almost beat my record: the game I've seen started since longest was a summer friendly Barcelona-Santos at Camp Nou, in 1998. I arrived at the 31st because I could not find the stadium. The away fans' sector is almost deserted, there will be no more than 200 people, so much that the upper part, where in theory were our seats, remains closed. Most of the people have local accents, so I find out with surprise that there are Torino fans in Rome and its surroundings. My friend meets a fan of Viterbo, whom he met on a Torino match in Northern Europe.

Shortly after our entry Torino scores. In the second half Roma presses: a draw would also have the consequence of having to stay in the cold for more than half an hour more. The nightmare goes away when Torino goes on 2-0, but then is back when with a few minutes to go Roma goes to 2-1 (after missing a penalty).

The game ends 2-1, around 7.25 and the attendance leave the stadium. All except us in the away fans' sector. During the game the stewards had told us that we would probably go out at about 8pm, which for them meant early. I did not want to believe it: I figured they would let us out a little later, but I did not think so much, in such an insignificant game, with so few away fans. I once had to wait to go out in Moscow during the 2013 World Cup, but it was 15-20 minutes, and it was not cold.

The stewards, instead, were right: they let us go out at about 8.10. And it did not end there: once we get to the last gate they make us go out a few at a time.

Then one wonders: why does people no longer go to the stadium?

Roma-Torino (20-12-2017)

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Che ci fa un interista ad una partita di Coppa Italia tra Roma e Torino, per di più alle 17,30 di un giorno lavorativo? Accompagna un amico tifoso del Torino, che vive in Finlandia e da tempo non vedeva una partita della sua squadra. Per lui era la prima volta all'Olimpico, per me la prima volta nel settore ospiti, in 43 anni di frequentazione degli stadi.

Partiamo dall'aeroporto verso le 16,30. Il navigatore prevede di arrivare in 30 minuti, ma si sa, è ottimista, e poi ci sarà il problema del parcheggio. Tutto facile fino agli ultimi 5 km, ma poi per quelli ci mettiamo quasi un'ora! Arriviamo davanti allo stadio che la partita è già cominciata, ma si vede ancora gente che entra. Stavolta per il parcheggio va un po' meglio delle ultime volte (es. qui), perché non tutti i parcheggi dello stadio sono chiusi, solo quelli più vicini.

Arriviamo ai cancelli verso le 17,50. Ci controllano i documenti e ci dicono di tenerli pronti, perché saranno ricontrollati. Infatti ce li ricontrollano ai tornelli e poi una terza volta a un altra barriera poco dopo. Faccio presente che mi sembra molto difficile che si possa sostituire una persona in quei pochi metri, mi rispondono che sono d'accordo, ma le disposizioni sono queste. Mi dicono anche che non fanno così solo per il settore ospiti, ma a me non era mai successo. Un altro motivo per controllare più volte potrebbe essere che non si fidano degli steward, ma anche qui capirei due controlli, non tre.

Entriamo finalmente nello stadio al 28' della partita. Per poco non batto il mio record: la partita che ho visto cominciata da più tempo fu un'amichevole estiva Barcellona-Santos al Camp Nou, nel 1998. Arrivai al 31' perché non riuscivo a trovare lo stadio. Il settore ospiti è quasi deserto, ci saranno non più di 200 persone, tanto che la parte superiore, dove in teoria erano i nostri posti, rimane chiusa. La maggior parte dei presenti ha accenti di qui, per cui scopro con sorpresa che esistono tifosi del Torino anche a Roma e dintorni. Il mio amico incontra un tifoso di Viterbo, che aveva conosciuto in una trasferta del Torino nel Nord Europa.

Poco dopo il nostro ingresso il Torino segna. Nel secondo tempo la Roma preme: un pareggio avrebbe anche la conseguenza di dover stare al freddo un'altra mezz'ora abbondante. L'incubo si allontana quando il Toro si porta sul 2-0, ma poi ritorna quando a pochi minuti dalla fine la Roma si porta sul 2-1 (dopo aver sbagliato un rigore).

La partita finisce sul 2-1, intorno alle 19,25 e gli spettatori lasciano lo stadio. Tutti tranne noi del settore ospiti. Durante la partita gli steward ci avevano detto che probabilmente saremmo usciti verso le 20, che per loro voleva dire presto. Io non ci volevo credere: immaginavo che ci avrebbero lasciato uscire un po' dopo, ma non pensavo così tanto, in una partita così insignificante, con così pochi tifosi in trasferta. Mi era già capitato una volta di dover aspettare per uscire, a Mosca durante i mondiali di atletica 2013, ma furono 15-20 minuti, e non faceva freddo.

Gli steward invece avevano ragione: ci fanno uscire verso le 20,10. E non è finita lì: una volta arrivati all'ultimo cancello ci fanno uscire a scaglioni.

Poi ci si chiede: perché la gente non va più allo stadio?

I have one reader less

I have to take a break in sports memories: today I got terrible news. I have one less reader: Andrea (a man's name in Italian) Alivernini died, my colleague almost of the same age (born in 1966) and fan of this blog since the beginning. This is what he had written to me after reading my first post

"Bravo Fabio, I read the history of the Milan Palasport with a lot of curiosity. Keep writing, you have talent! "

Perhaps the most encouraging message I have received.

I've known him for 20 years, since we were colleagues. We never worked together, but I often visited him to talk about sports. Die-hard Roma fan, he too, like me and I think almost everyone in my generation, remembered better games of his youth than many more recent ones. He took part in our league of fantasy football, a game he played since the beginning, then after an argument with a participant, he had quit, carving out the role of guarantor. He told me about his league, which mixed First and Second division players. As a result they could only play when both divisions were playing, and he once had 2 hat-tricks from Second Division players when First was not playing.

After the start of the blog we had also talked about athletics: he told me that he was there when when Panetta won the gold in Rome 1987. I had envied him: I too wanted to go to those World Championships, but I had not found the tickets. It was not easy to get them before the Internet.

His last game, at least in the league, was the derby his team won: in this he went well (I do not know if he has had time to see the defeat with Atletico). Sometimes I wonder what my last one will be ...

Among other things, his death soon follows that of two athletes more or less my age, Jana Novotna and Naim Suyleimanoglu. It is the first person so close and of my age that I lose: a long time ago, the death of one of my former football coach reminded me that you die young, but he was still 8 years older than me (30 him, 22 me).

I hope he has already met Bernardini, Amadei, Liedholm and maybe even Di Bartolomei.

... et in perpetuum, Andrea, ave atque vale (..."and forever, Andrea, hallo and goodbye", it's Catullus)

Winter Olympics in Turin (2006)

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Let's not talk about the football World Cup, it's better. Let's talk about the Winter Olympics: the 2018 ones are approaching, Arianna Fontana has been appointed flag carrier. I will not go to Pyeongchang: too complicated. Information is not easy to find, I did not even find a schedule, let alone information  on accomodation.

My first Winter Olympics experience was Turin 2006, the second week: beside being close to home, I did not even have accommodation problems, as my parents in law lived nearby. Not very close, however: it was northeast of Turin, while the Olympic sites were west. For mountain races I left the car at Pinerolo or Oulx and took the shuttles, for those in town I left it in some parking and I used the urban transport.

It has been said so much about the success of these Olympics and how they represented a relaunch for the city. As a common spectator, I definitely agree, but I noticed just on defect: it was all calibrated on a spectator who attended one race a day. In fact, if one had taken litterally the instructions in the manual, it would have been impossible to watch more than one: they suggested to arrive three hours in advance! Actually, it was not necessary at all, indeed in many races, if someone had done it, he would be bored a lot. An hour was more than enough for all races: entry controls required some time, but not more than half an hour. I lost a bit more time if I wore a knee pad: the metal detector rang. 

I paid the consequences of this setting especially on the first day: I had tickets for cross-country and then for biathlon. The break was a couple of hours, which seemed more than enough to move from Pragelato to Sansicario, there had to be a shuttle going through the valley all day long. After the cross-country, however, all coaches were for those going back to town and for one in the other direction I had to wait for more than an hour, together with the other people who had the same idea, about ten. Eventually I missed the women's race and managed to see only the men's one (they were the two pursuit races).

Another sign of this mentality was that in the manual there were indications to reach the venues from so many places, but not from other venues. Once I have struggled a lot to find an arena starting from another one, in a pre-smarthone and pre-Google Maps.

The other invention of these Olympics was the Medal Plaza. Now they all have all one, even small events. For me it was not easy to go and watch it, I would have preferred traditional ceremonies.

I have seen many sports: not luge, as it was in the first week, and also not figure skating, where the tickets were expensive and already scarce when I bought them, 9 months earlier. But we'll talk about single races next time.