gooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal

Apparently one thing you're not supposed to do when going abroad is go to a sports match because it's potentially dangerous with all the crazy fanatic people.

Oops.



A few weeks ago some of us went to a match between one of Moscow's teams, Lokomotiv, and team Amkar from Perm (a city about 1000 km from Moscow, near the Ural mountains). We sat in the cheap seats, aka fanatic fan section, aka the best and most fun section.

This is a bit from the opening ceremonies.


Everyone was insanely into the game, constantly yelling chants and singing Lokomotiv songs in order to cheer their team onto victory. After many close attempts by Lokomotiv to score a goal, the score was still tied 0-0 with only a few minutes remaining; suddenly, a shot, and GOAAAAL -- Lokomotiv won and the crowd went wild.

Walking with the crowd to the metro after the game. The cars are all honking because they heard about the win, and the crowd begins shouting the player's name who scored the goal; they then start singing one of Lokomotiv's songs, which happens to be the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In." (Sorry in advance for the shakiness)




Our next adventure takes us to the World Cup qualifying match between Russia and Slovenia. If you'll remember, I watched the match between Germany and Russia in a sports bar and Germany won. Russia then went on to play Azerbaijan and tied 1:1. This meant Russia had to win this match against Slovenia in order to stay in the World Cup qualifiers.
We actually didn't buy tickets ahead of time and instead went early to scout out tickets. ...and when I say "we" I actually mean Phil, the football aficionado of the group, went up to random people selling tickets and miraculously found three seats together for the girls and another seat for himself. Tickets in hand, we set off to buy Russia scarves and find our seats.
Everyone was given masks to prevent Swine Flu (which we fondly refer to as "the грипп" - the flu). Although I'm sure the masks are as effective as they are fashionable, we only wore them for the photo op. Also please note our amazing scarves.



Post Russia scoring second goal = happy fans


Our side and the other side of the stadium shouting "Вперёд, Россия!" (pronounced "fpeeryode Rossiya", means "Forward Russia!/Go Russia!")



Russia was slacking a bit towards the end of the game and Slovenia scored a goal. Russia still won, but when deciding who qualifies for the World Cup, they count the number of goals, which meant Russia and Slovenia had to play another game to determine who would go on to South Africa. (I think I'm explaining this correctly? If someone knows better, feel free to tell me I'm wrong). Sadly this time Russia lost with a final score of 0-1 Slovenia, which I think means they're out of the World Cup.


After the win we saw, everyone was ecstatic. People in the metro were shouting something along the lines of "GO RUSSIA!" and being generally insane. It was one of the only times I've seen large groups of happy Russians in public. While riding the escalator out of the metro, I was still wearing my Russia scarf and people gleefully shouted "За шарфа России!" (To the Russia scarf!) at me.
It was the coolest.



Next sporting adventure: HOCKEY.
Stay tuned.


p.s.
Tomorrow we go to Pskov, a smaller city about a 12 hour train ride to the North/West of Moscow.
Next update after I return!