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?
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