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AEK Athens vs. Olympiakos Piraeus
Athens, Greece
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Rivals, The Offbeat Guide To The 92 League Clubs, is one of the best derby books available.
Read the review |
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| Barcelona SC - Emelec (3-1) |
| Friendly, 06 February 2008 |
| Stadium : Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha |
| Attendance : 70.000 |
"El Clásico Del Astillero" is THE most important football match of Ecuador. The whole country stops when this derby is played, even the people who don't sympathize with one of the teams watch the game or are eager to know the score.
It doesn't matter if one team has a very bad league campaign or if the match is played when the points have no importance for the league position. The match is always played as if it's a final, and sometimes there are incidents outside and inside the pitch.
Getting the tickets wasn't too hard. We bought them in advance, so we didn't have any problems with that. But I did hear about some people that had a hard time trying to get them at the day of the match. The fans of both teams wait for this game so long that the tickets are sold out very fast.
The place where I was seated had a great view, being such an important game, I bought the most expensive seat (25 USD, normal ticket price is 5-10 USD), the suites, which are only for owners, but I managed to get one (:D).
The atmosphere is tremendous. We Latin Americans have a lot of passion for football which grows even bigger when a match like this is played. The people in the stadium scream and sing the teams songs and anthems. It doesn't matter if you're broke, hungry, or have lots of problems, you forget every bad aspect of your life for a moment. The stadium was filled with people for an hour before the kick off, people where already singing and having a good time.
Sadly, this match has a history of violence, sometimes people forget that they are watching a game and that's when problems occur. In this particular game, a horrible thing happened. A boy, of about eleven years old (CS Emelec fan), died when a flare hit him in the chest, piercing his thorax and hitting his lung. The news about the dead of the little boy shocked the whole country and some regulations were made. But none of them still ensure the safety of the people that go to these kind of matches.
The flare was launched from Barcelona SC's ultras, "Sur Oscura", a very famous group of fans, which is mainly formed by poor people that fill up the general seats of the stadiums. It has a big organization and they are present at all matches that Barcelona SC plays. The flare was launched as a response of another one sent from CS Emelec's ultras, "Boca Del Pozo". The flare that "Sur Oscura" launched diverted and hit the child. The people involved in this horrible act are still not identified.
"Sur Oscura" and "Boca del Pozo" have a lot of history too. They have special songs for each other and most of them with a lot of explicit lyrics, you have to go to a "Clásico" to know the hatred that this two fan groups have for each other.
Report added : 27 March 2008
Report by : Luis
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