Calcio!

Last Sunday night Sean and I went to the Milano-Roma soccer match at Stadio Olimpico, the big stadium here in the city center. This was my first European soccer experience - which was really like no other. We squeezed onto the city bus with a million other Roma fans who were dressed in red and gold to support the team, drinking and chanting the whole way there. When we arrived I was in awe. There were so many people - all rushing into the stadium - there was such excitement, a particular energy - as if you could breath the adrenaline in the air. The first sight we took in of the stadium was also pretty amazing. Sean and I both stopped to stare at the field - so big and green and so surreal - with famous footballers warming up from both teams. As soon as we found our seats I tried looking for Beckham on the field, who was playing with Milano for the first time that night, since he is the most famous, handsome and of course one of the main reasons Sean was able to get me to go to a game. We found him along with Ronaldinho, Kaka, Pato, all big players for Milano, I was able to recognize from watching the games with Sean on TV. The crowd remained enthusiastic through the whole game - there is a strong rivalry between the two teams which made the fans extra rowdy. If you need a play-by-play of the game, you are going to have to ask Sean. All I know is that the guy who scored both goals for Roma is the guy who is known for being the first person in the sport to ever take his pants off when scoring during a previous game. I just remembered seeing this display over and over on the news and that is how I remembered him when Sean told me who was scoring on Sunday. It’s a pretty funny story actually - Mirko Vucinic ripped his pants off and ran around in his white undies after scoring, his new nick name is “strip tease”. And he wasn’t even punished either because there apparently wasn’t any rule against taking your pants off during a game. Now there is though, because of him, so hopefully it doesn’t happen again...although I thought it would be funny if it did. Anytime a goal was scored whichever team it was for the fans, which were 99% male, were out of control - shouting, cheering and setting off fireworks. The game ended in a tie - 2-2, which I was glad for because I just wanted all the fans to be nice. It took us about 2 hours to get home with all the chaos after the game. All in all it was a really fun, entertaining experience.