Campionato Serie D Girone C
Sunday 21 November 2021
Played at Stadio Comunale Giorgio Calbi
I thoroughly enjoyed that. A nice simple ground tick. Nice beer in the ground. Beer tick on the way back to the station. And, witness to lower level Italian Ultra & Players interaction.
Cattolica's Stadio Comunale Giorgio Calbi is the 378th different ground I've watched a game at. A running track around the pitch. Changing rooms in a separate large building behind one of the ends. Simple stand on the main side. Seats with backs in the very middle. Seats without backs in the inner wings, concrete terrace in the outer wings.
And, the Ultra Curva, an - it's become permanent, even though it was only temporary, uncovered scaffold stand on the far side. Now, in a sense, I know fuck all about Italian Ultra Culture. And, I'm certainly not going to claim any the wiser after one game. What I had were preconceptions. I expected Cattolica to have some Ultras. Even playing in one of the many divisions in the fourth tier Serie D. A town of maybe 20k. No particularly big cities or teams nearby. And I expected something to happen at the end of the game. Something a bit different to the EFL wave & clap while holding your shinpads.
Anyway, the Cattolica Ultras. Superb effort. Arrogant Confident Naughty. That's according to my translation of their sticker. A handful of flags draped over the fence. Maybe the same number of wavy flags on poles. A banner. "Fat De In Cul". I've had a trawl around different languages. I'm settling on You Fat Arse. We've all got 'em.
One kid with a drum. Note - proper heavy sticks, not bass drum hammers. One kid orchestrating. (I'll say 30 of 'em in total). They let a flare off as the teams lined up. They let a dense smoke bomb off at the beginning of the second half. But. Mainly. They sang, loudly, throughout the entire 90 minutes. Despite the fact that their team were shit & three down by half time. A brief respite after each goal conceded as you might expect. What the fuck has he done that for? Etc.
But, then, straight back at it. Full repertoire of songs. Some with sit down, stand up actions. Some with one row shuffle right, the next shuffle left actions. Some with (I loved this) part of the mob stand at the top, and all rush down the stand at once actions.
I mean, it was all a novelty to the Carrier Bag Firm of course. But, we were struck by their constant, 90 minutes, full on singing and encouragement. If only eh?
Look I can't pretend to know nor explain what actually happened at the end (still dicked three nil). But, here's what I saw on the whistle. The staff, subs & everyone else on the bench walked over to the Curva. It looked to me like the first player who got over there was given the Royal Fuck Off To The Dressing Room treatment by the Ultras. He's about turned & jogged on.
The rest of the players & staff had a little regroup & the keeper was sent forward to the fence. While ALL the others (minus one) stood and listened/watched at what I can only describe as a respectful distance. Things were obviously heated for a while, there was a good deal of pointing & gesticulating. Both sides (although one side only consisted of the keeper spokesman) were clearly expected to have their say and, crucially, listen to what the other side had to say. Slowly, and I'm estimating the dialogue lasted a full ten minutes, things calmed down & "agreements" seemed to be reached. The keeper debriefed his team quickly. There was a brief chant from the Ultras & both sides parted "amicably".
Emphasising, I'd no real idea what was going on or said. But, I was thoroughly intrigued by it all.
We'd had to hang around outside the gate for ten minutes before the start as they weren't ready with all the cash box & Covid requirements. Consequently, a few Cattolica fans beat us in & beat us to the bar. To a man, they all ordered madly shallow espresso coffees. Gone in a heartbeat. A fucking fast heartbeat no doubt with all that caffeine. Shame. Because the beer offering was lovely.
Spaten, Muncher Hell on Keg at 5.2%
(I checked) You're allowed to take that up to your seat & drink it while watching the game. Good footy beer that one.
Overall, I was able to push my Italian Beer Ticks up to 51. On the way back to Cattolica Station, I was able to claim;
Bad Brewer, IPA from a Bottle at 6%
Easy drinking. Quite malty. The hops get there in the end. But not an intense bitterness.
Twitter @ball_sup
www.twitter.com/ball_sup
Untappd ball_sup
Stats
I have now Blogged from 1,028 games in 2,651 days
No comments:
Post a Comment