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Groundhopping : Djurgården at Tele2 Arena
Stockholm has two brand new football stadiums. The 50 000 capacity Friends Arena opened in october 2012 and serves as both Sweden’s new national stadium and as the new home of AIK, one of three Stockholm clubs in Allsvenskan, Sweden’s top divison.
The second stadium is Tele2 Arena which was opened in July 2013. The 33 000 capacity stadium is now the home of both Hammarby and Djurgården.
I visited Friends Arena in may, but not to watch football. I was there for a Bruce Springsteen concert, and the roof above the stadium was closed. Still it looked pretty impressive, although I can’t help but think that it might feel a little empty during AIK’s home games seeing as their average attendance this season was 18 900.
I went back to Stockholm in august, and this time I was going to a football game instead of a concert. The game was Djurgården - Häcken, and the stadium was Tele2 Arena.
Since I had floor tickets for the concert at Friends Arena, I can’t compare their facilities in the stands, but one thing is for sure: from a neutral spectators point of view Tele2 Arena, although lacking in old school charm, is by far the most modern and comfortable stadium I’ve visited. The seats were padded and felt more like seats in a cinema than in a football stadium, and each had a cup holder. Too bad they don’t sell beers that you can put in that cup holder. They only serve folköl, a watered down horrible 3,5% lager type that you really want to avoid.
Djurgårdens average attendance in their first season at Tele2 Arena is 15 858, and that means more empty seats than tickets sold. Against a struggling Häcken side, the attendance was only 10 548. According to what I’ve heard later, it was a disappointing performance from Djurgårdens supporters, Järnkaminerna, but I thought the atmosphere was decent. The fact that Häcken brought so few away supporters obviously didn’t help in this regard.
Djurgården took the the lead through Godsway Donyoh within the first ten minutes, but Häcken equalized thanks to a dubious penalty in the second half, and the game ended 1-1 to the frustration of the home supporters.
Better quality pictures : http://www.flickr.com/photos/glimt1916/sets/72157635362808830/with/9541944444/
#djurgården#tele2#fotball#football#hacken#supporters#allsvenskan#sweden#sverige#stockholm#banehopping#groundhopping#2013#1-1#camera#slr#tattoo
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Groundhopping : Hajduk Split at Stadion Poljud
Hajduk Split is one of the biggest clubs in Croatia. They have won nine Yugoslav and six Croatian league championships, in addition to nine Yugoslav and five Croatian cup titles. Their two last league titles was back in 2004 and 2005, and since that their biggest rivals Dinamo Zagreb has been crowned champions seven times in a row. Probably not easy to take for the Hajduk supporters. The word Hajduk translates to outlaw or freedom fighter.
Their opponents NK Hrvatski Dragovoljac are, like Dinamo, from Zagreb, but there’s where the similarities end. HD is more of a small neighborhood club. They have an interesting story though. Founded as late as 1975 as NK Trnsko 75, they have changed the club name no less than three times. The latest change came in 1994 when Croatian football resumed play after the war of independence. Many of the clubs members had volunteered to to fight in the war, and to honor those who fought and lost their lives in the war, they changed their name to Hrvatski Dragovoljac, which translates to Croatian volunteer.
One of the cool things about Split is all the Hajduk Split street art. There is a lot of it, big and small. Some of the pieces cover huge walls. You’ll see the first ones on your way from the airport to the city center. Unfortunately I only saw the huge pieces from cars, so I had no way of getting pics.
After nine very hot days in Croatia, this was to be the hottest one on our entire trip. According to the computer it was 39 degrees Celsius when we left the apartment for a few pre-match brews. For a Norwegian that’s just too much. We had bought the tickets along with some merch at the Torcida Split shop inside the Diocletian’s Palace earlier that day. The tickets set us back 60 Kuna a piece, about €8. But you could get tickets for 40 Kuna, and I recommend this if it’s not a big game, since it’s so many empty seats you can pretty much move around as you like once you get inside the stadium.
As for beer, Croatia is not very exciting. At least the places we visited. It's lager, lager, lager, and often not very good lagers at that. Luckily we eventually stumbled across a decent place I haven't seen mentioned on any beer sites on the internet. It's called Mali Flek, it's inside the Diocletian's Palace, and they have craft beer. We went there before the game, hoping that the pub might be full of singing supporters, but there were just a few other people watching another game on the TV. We had some good beer though.
Split is not a big city, at least the part were tourists spend their time, and it's just a 10-15 minute walk from the pubs inside the Diocletian's Palace to Stadion Poljud. We made our way in good time, hoping we might stumble over a supporter pub along the way, but no luck. We ended up getting a beer outside the stadium instead. They sell beer and some grilled food from tents in front of the stadium. The beer was the usual Hajducko and we didn't try the food.
Since I had a bag with my camera equipment the security check took a little time. The security people kept saying "relax, relax, no reason to be nervous" as they made me show them the entire contents of my pockets and my bag. I didn't understand why at first, but quickly realized that I was literally pouring with sweat from the crazy heat. The sweat was dripping from my nose and ears. I guess they haven't seen a Norwegian in 35-40 degrees heat before. By the way, the guards wore vests marked with "security pit bull", so maybe I should have been nervous... Thankfully there was no problem getting the SLR camera inside. My girlfriend wasn't checked at all, she just walked straight past them, so if you're gonna smuggle something inside, getting a woman to carry it is clearly the way to
The stadium itself is a bit run down, even though it was built as recently as 1979. And I don't think they clean it too often. There were loads of peanut shells from prevoius games, and the locals brought newspapers to sit on, since the seats wasn't exactly clean. The same goes for the toilets. You could almost smell your way to them, and in some stalls parts of the toilets were pulled from the wall and the doors ripped of their hinges. Didn't matter much to me, but I guess it's not the best facilities for women.
The biggest Hajduk supporter group is called Torcida Split. They were founded in 1950 and are the oldest organized supporter group in Europe. They have taken the name Torcida from the Brazilian Portuguese word for "supporters". They made a pretty impressive impression, singing, chanting and setting of flares throughout the game. Other than them occupying the end, the stadium was far from full. It has a 35 000 capacity, and I don't think it was half of that. The away support were literally a handful of guys in the opposite end with a couple of banners, HD is obviously not the big club i Zagreb.
As for the football itself, it was far from spectacular. Despite HD being one of the weaker teams in the division, Hajduk went out with a safety first attitude, and instead of putting some pace on the ball and counter attack when they had the chance they passed the ball back, to the huge frustration of parts of the crowd. They actually almost got in trouble a few times because of this, and the goalie had to kick the ball out of play more than once after being put under pressure. A guy beside us spent most of the first half divided between loudly complaining about this and resting his head in his hands mumbling.
In the end Hajduk won 2-1 without impressing anyone, and we made our way back to the apartment. It was too hot to do anything else, and the only thing on our mind was the sweet salvation of the air condition.
For better quality pictures, go here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/glimt1916/sets/72157634935412784/
Source : Wikipedia
#hajduk#split#stadion#stadion poljud#poljud#ultras#support#fotball#football#ground#hopping#camera#slr#craft#beer#craftbeer#croatia
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Nedrykk, tårer og en jævla god klem
Sesongen 2005 var et vedvarende mareritt for Bodø/Glimt. Med den gamle høyrebacken og cupmesteren Ola Haldorsen ved roret hadde klubben slitt fra første kamp, og nå befant jeg meg i en glissent besatt sving på Ullevaal stadion for å overvære sesongens siste kamp, borte mot Lyn. Lyn hadde hatt en god sesong og spilte for en medalje denne dagen. Glimt var allerede klare for nedrykk, og hadde kun æren å spille for. For meg personlig betydde akkurat det veldig mye. Æren. Det å gå ned med flagget til topps.
Men det skulle vise seg å bli en særdeles lite ærefull avslutning for Glimt. Et slapt og tilsynelatende umotivert lag tapte til slutt 6-0, og de upartiske husker nok kampen best for en komisk tabbe av reservekeeper Jonas Kolstad på et av baklengsmålene. Mange av Glimtsupporterne på tribunen hadde innfunnet seg med nedrykket for lenge siden, og virket rimelig uberørt av kampen. Jeg tok det derimot ganske hardt. Noen av oss sto igjen og applauderte Glimt av banen, og ble også stående for å applaudere Lyn når de mottok bronsemedaljene sine. De kom også bort til oss med pokalen og applauderte tilbake til oss. Hele tiden mens dette pågikk sto jeg og kjempet en allerede tapt kamp for å holde tårene tilbake. Jeg måtte snu ryggen til bana og tørke meg i ansiktet av og til, livredd for at jeg skulle bli filmet. Å bli vist gråtende på tv ville definitivt ikke gjort kvelden bedre.
Når jeg til slutt tuslet ut av stadion fant jeg fort ut at offentlige transportmidler var utelukket. Jeg slet fortsatt med å holde tårene tilbake og var ikke så veldig interessert i å sette i grininga på trikk eller bane, omgitt av andre supportere. Så jeg gikk fra Ullevaal tilbake til Carl Berner der jeg bodde. Jeg hadde Glimtdrakt på, og etter noen minutter kom en mann i sekstiårene med Lynskjerf bort og begynte å prate med meg. Vi slo følge et stykke og pratet om kampen og om klubbene våre. Jeg så veldig mørkt på det meste i Glimt, og var samtidig imponert over Lyn. De hadde et ungt og lovende lag, mer folk på tribunen enn på lenge, og en rik eier i Atle Brynestad som garanterte for penger. De hadde nettopp avsluttet sesongen på tredjeplass, kun to poeng bak seriemesteren. Glimt hadde nettopp rykket ned og hadde økonomiske problemer. Situasjonen for de to klubbene så mildt sagt ulik ut. Men mannen jeg pratet med sa at jeg måtte huske at ting gikk opp og ned her i verden, og at om kun få år kunne alt dette være snudd på hodet. Han snakket om oppturer og nedturer han hadde opplevd som Lynsupporter, og Lynsupporter hadde han vært siden før jeg ble født. Jeg takket ham for at han prøvde å oppmuntre meg, men sa at jeg ikke klarte å se for meg at Glimt skulle kunne klare å ta opp konkurransen med Lyn igjen med det første. Fem år senere gikk Lyn konkurs og ble trukket ned til nivå sju i seriesystemet. Publikumsnittet deres falt fra 6480 i 2005 til 868 i 2010. Jeg tenkte en del på samtalen vår når det skjedde. Jeg liker å se for meg at han fortsatt tusler hjem fra kamper i nåværende 3. divisjon og minner noen han går sammen med om 2005-sesongen, og at ting snur fort i fotball.
Når jeg hadde kommet meg nesten helt hjem til Carl Berner møtte jeg et par på gata. En mann i 20-30 årene og det som antagelig var kjæresten hans kom gående mot meg. Han snakket i mobilen og hadde på seg en Vålerengadrakt. Vålerenga hadde nettopp vunnet serien for første gang siden 1984, og kontrastene mellom humøret til meg og mannen som kom gående mot meg kunne neppe vært særlig mye større. Jeg hadde kommet over tårene og følte meg bare helt tom. Jeg prøvde å overbevise meg selv om at jeg egentlig ikke brydde meg så mye, en typisk selvforsvarmekanisme for enhver fotballsupporter. Da jeg skulle passere mannen i Vålerengadrakten stakk han plutselig ut hånda og stoppet meg, mens han sa ”Jeg ringer deg opp igjen, det er noe jeg må gjøre” i mobilen. Så ga han meg en klem. Han ga meg en klem og sa “hadde håpa det ikke skulle bli dere, men dere kommer rett opp igjen”. Tårene var umiddelbart tilbake, og jeg stotra ut et eller annet, kanskje et ”takk” eller et ”gratulerer”, jeg husker ikke. Situasjonen var litt klossete, som den ofte er når to menn skal gi hverandre en klem, og jeg kunne se at dama hans synes det hele var pinlig. Men det var det ikke. Det var en av de beste klemmene jeg noen sinne har fått.
Midt i den største nedturen jeg hadde opplevd som supporter møtte jeg en annen supporter som nettopp hadde opplevd sin største opptur, og han tok seg tid til å ta seg en pause fra det for trøste meg. Fotball handler om mer enn resultater, og hvordan man oppfører seg både i medgang og motgang sier noe om både deg og klubben din. Og noen ganger vil det bli husket like godt som resultatet.
Jeg har reist landet rundt og sett fotballaget mitt tape og vinne, rykke opp og rykke ned, og til og med sett dem vinne en cupfinale, men et av de beste minnene mine er en klem fra en vilt fremmed mann på fortauet i Oslo en søndagskveld i 2005.
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Groundhopping : Benfica at Estádio de Luz
I had already been in Portugal for over a week when match day approached. It had been raining a lot for most of the time, but thankfully, this day the weather was fine. I got out of the hotel room and almost ran down the hill from Castelo de São Jorge in anticipation. I was buzzing and really looking forward to this. Along the way I stopped at a small store and asked if it was legal to drink a beer on the street. He said “Of course!”. I had no idea if it was true, but I still bought one. I kept walking to the Metro, a cold beer in my hand and Rancid on my headphones. Perfect.
Contrary to Tokyo, it’s pretty simple navigating the metro of Lisbon. So I got on my train, and just stayed on it until I saw the other people going to the match getting off. To be honest I almost missed my stop because everything was so quiet and orderly that I was a bit lost in my own thoughts. It wasn’t very crowded on the train, and there was no kind of atmosphere that indicated that people were on their way to a football match. I saw a few people with scarfs, and three young guys with Chelsea and Liverpool tops. I always find it strange that people go to matches with other team colors than their own.
It was a short walk from the Metro to the Estadio de Luz, and along the way there were people selling scarfs, and also some food and beer stands. I bought a scarf for five euros (which to my surprise turned out to be official), and then I went straight for the stadium. I had been assured on the clubs website that there was no need to buy tickets in advance, as the games never sold out, but I never feel comfortable before I have a ticket in my hand. I spent some time trying to locate the ticket office, which turned out to be two small stalls that didn’t look anything like the huge modern stadium I had just passed. I got in line and waited patiently, only to be told that I was of course queuing in front of the wrong stall. So I had to change queues and start at the very back again. Predictably I was offered many “very good” tickets from local youths who assured me they were good as gold, and that it was a waste of time and money to wait in line to buy one. I haven’t fallen for that one since Liverpool-Coventry in 1997. (To be honest I didn't fall for it then either, but me and a mate were alone outside The Albert, and some huge guys offered us two tickets. The one with the tickets had a freshly broken nose. My mate told me in Norwegian that these tickets where clearly false. I agreed, but told him that I thought we were gonna lose our money now, it was only a question of how. The tickets were false, but we still got in).
Thankfully I was in the right queue this time, and after some waiting I was able to point at a map to show were I wanted to sit. I just randomly pointed at one of the sides. The lady in the booth couldn't speak English so there was no point in asking questions. The ticket set me back 22,5 euro, which I thought was surprisingly expensive. Maybe I had gotten a really good seat? I calmed down a bit as soon as had the ticket in my hand, and I spent a little time just walking around taking in some of the sights and the atmosphere.
As the time to get into the stadium approached, I started to get my usual nerves about the camera equipment. I had my SLR and two big lenses in my backpack. The last year I had been to top flight matches in Paris, Roma and Tokyo with no problems. In Roma I didn’t bring my camera equipment because I figured they were gonna be strict, especially since it was the derby against Lazio. But when I got in I could see lots of other people with SLR’s, and I was a bit annoyed that I hadn’t brought mine. So this time I thought there shouldn’t be any problems. As I walked around the stadium towards my entrance, I talked to some people heading in the same direction. They told me that the security was really strict, and I started to get a bit nervous. Just before I got to my entrance, I walked by a sign that had images of things that wasn’t allowed to bring in. There was an image of an SLR with a big fat red X over it. I still tried of course, hoping to play the stupid foreigner card, but no luck. I had to walk all the way back to were I came from and hand over my pretty expensive camera equipment to a guy that told me that I had to be back within 30 minutes after the last whistle if I wanted it back. Otherwise they would close and I had to come back on Monday, which wasn’t an alternative for me since that’s the day we were leaving Portugal.
I made my way back to the entrance, clutching my little receipt and more than a little bit bummed out because I now had to take pictures with my little pocket camera. As I got into the stands I quickly realized that I was on my own regarding finding my seat. I asked a security guard, and he couldn’t speak any English, so he just pointed upwards. I started walking up the stairs, and stopped two times to ask for help, but people just waved me upwards. If I had paid for a good seat, it wouldn’t do me any good. I ended up just walking until I found an empty one and sat down. Now I was in the nosebleeds, but I had a pretty good view of both the stadium and the field. The whole camera fiasco had taken so long that I had missed the part before kick off where they release an eagle that flies circles inside the stadium. That sucked pretty hard, but it wasn’t like I could take a picture of it anyways….
Benfica came out in a traditional 4-4-2 formation against Rio Aves 4-3-3, and tried to dominate the possession. This proved successful although Rio Ave should have capitalized on some of their counter attacks. Some of Rio Aves players seemed a little weak and undetermined, and maybe they were scared of the occasion. This season they have an average home attendance of 2259 in a 12 815 capacity stadium, while tonight the 65 000 capacity Estadio da Luz contained more than 45 000 people. Or maybe Benfica just was that much better. Whatever it was, Benfica took the lead after just 11 minutes, and doubled it four minutes later. There was not much doubt about how this was going to end. Just before half time Benfica scored another, and trying to beat the queue I made my way down from the nosebleeds to get me some food.
I was first in line at the food stall, but got completely ignored since tried to talk English. To my amazement a new queue formed right beside me, and they started taking orders from other people. I tried to order several times, and the person in front of me in the stall kept nodding, as to show he and seen me, and he would get someone who spoke English right away. After a while of this I just took a step to the left and STARTED TALKING VERY LOUD, ordering the thing that was easiest to pronounce. As they couldn’t ignore me anymore, I eventually got my food. Witch was shit. The meat was so dry and hard to chew that my jaw actually started hurting. It was like a work out for the face. Although I might desperately need just that, I threw it away and started looking for another stall. I found one that sold popcorn and something that looked like some kind of meat wrap. I got in line again, bought what was hopefully a juicy chicken wrap, and got back to the stands. People had moved, so this time I was even further up. As I unpacked my wrap, I realized that it didn't contain food, but some cake type thing. Things were not going my way tonight.
Benfica started the second half as they had ended the first, and needed just four minutes to add a fourth goal. But right after that Rio Ave got a goal from a shot with a lucky reflection. Could they muster some kind of comeback? No they couldn’t. Ten minutes later Wires got his second yellow card, and was sent off. A bit harsh if you ask me, as the Benfica player made a bit of a meal of it. And just ten minutes later the same time happened with Edimar. Second yellow, off he went, and Benfica was now eleven against nine. They managed to score two more, ending the game at 6-1, but in the process Melgajero managed to get his second yellow of the game right before the end. That also looked pretty harsh to me, but it didn’t matter much by then. So seven goals and three red cards, not bad for a random game. As I have a fear of heights, and had actually managed to scare myself by going too far up and to the side of the stand to take a picture, I quickly got up and mixed with the rest of the crowd on their way down. It doesn’t seem so high and steep when you’re in a crowd.
I made my way straight back to the guy that had my camera equipment, and was relived not to have any problems getting it back. Then I went into the HUGE Benfica superstore and got my obligatory coffee mug and pint glass, and went back to the city center. It was surprisingly easy to get on the Metro. The rush had probably been when I was doing my shopping, but still I would have expected more of an atmosphere after the home side had won a game 6-1. All in all I would say I was let down a bit by the atmosphere before, during and after the game. Maybe it would have been different if Rio Ave had brought more away support.
For bigger pics : http://www.flickr.com/photos/glimt1916/sets/72157633131798722/
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Best of 2012
Records :
Susanne Sundfør - The Silicone Veil
Strife - Witness A Rebirth
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
Devil In Me - The End
The Little Hands Of Asphalt - Floors
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Oslo Ess - Verden På Nakken, Venner i Ryggen
Nekromantheon - Rise, Vulcan Spectre
Shows:
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Nya Ullevi, Gøteborg
Pearl Jam - Oslo Spektrum, Oslo
Thåström - Operataket, Oslo
Questionings (Vreid) - Operaen, Oslo
Hugh Laurie - Manhattan Center, New York
Sick Of It All & CIV - Webster Hall, New York
Refused - Øyafestivalen, Oslo
The Carburetors - Kværnerparken, Oslo
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Groundhopping : MTK Budapest at Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium
Blast from the past. This one's from May 2008.
The reason we went to Budapest for the weekend was to see Flogging Molly, but unfortunately they cancelled their show. What made this even worse was that back in Norway Bodø/Glimt was playing Tromsø at home. Not the kind of match I want to miss out on. But when the other lightweights on the trip felt tired and wanted to lay down for a while (Boohoo, I’ve been sitting on a chair drinking all day, I’m exhausted!) I found out that the local team MTK Budapest played a home game against Tatabánya at Stadion Hidegkuti Nándor the very same day. Off I went. After a rather long walk where I, as usual, got lost on several occasions I came to a pretty old and tired ground.
MTK Budapest have an official collaboration with Liverpool FC, so I guess I was kinda expecting the facilities to be somewhat better than they were. The whole stadium looked like it had seen better days. I got my ticket from one of the hole in the walls. All the glass had been smashed in on every one of them.
Before kick-off I had a wander inside the stadium. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and they sold beer at £1. Not a bad combination. I was slightly more skeptical to this food thing they sold.
That’s more like it!
I guess the reason why the stadium looks a little worn out is because they don't have any money to spend on it. Someone I spoke to inside told me they usually sold about 1500 tickets, while the capacity is over 12 000. It looked very empty inside when the game started.
As the game kicked off it fast became evident that MTK would win this fairly comfortable, they were dominating from the start. While watching the game I met some very nice and pretty drunk local people, as well as some not so nice and extremely drunk local people. At one point I decided to ditch some of those people by going to the toilet. The toilets were very cold, had no water and no lights. I had to use my phone to get a little light to maneuver around, all the while hoping my new “friends” didn’t come after me. It didn’t really feel very safe to be honest. When I got out again I went to stand in a other end of the standing supporters, but I was soon spotted by the people I ditched and had a bunch of what I suspect was not very nice Hungarian words yelled at me. I didn’t react and after a while they lost interest. I’m pretty sure they were just pissed off because I ditched them. Other than this minor glitch everything was fine, and after a while I noticed that there were some British people there. There are always some British people there, no matter where you are. I got to talking to one of them and it turned out he was from Newport in Wales. He went all over Europe to see matches, and he had been to nearly all the stadiums in the Norwegian top division. Not to Aspmyra though. His loss, of course.
We were still talking football when the ref blew the whistle and the small crowd started filtering out of the stadium. Since I had problems finding the way to the stadium I was happy that I was with a guy who knew the way back into town. We kept talking football and walked for about 20-30 minutes before I noticed we were now all alone in the street and said “So you’re sure this is the way back to the city center”? To which he replied “What?! I’m just following you”!
In the end MTK won the game 5-1 and that season they went on to win the Hungarian super cup for the second time and become Hungarian champions for the 23rd time. The following season they were eliminated in the second qualifying round to the Champions league by Fenerbahce, losing 0-7 on aggregate.
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Groundhopping : FC Tokyo at Ajinomoto Stadium.
Before going to Japan I had set my sights on going to Misaki Park Stadium to watch Vissel Kobe take on Shimizu S-Pulse, but it turned out we got to Kobe one day too late for the game (the Kobe beef was amazing though. AMAZING!), so I figured my chance to see a game during my stay in Japan were gone. But when we returned to Tokyo I saw a poster announcing that FC Tokyo would play at home against Kashima Antlers on our last day there. The game kicked off at 13:00 and the plane left 12 hours later so it was perfect timing.
After checking out of the hotel and a brief breakfast, I split up from the others and were on my way. It was still 2 1/2 hours until kick off, but since I had been in my “travelling with other people” mode, aka my "let other people figure shit out" mode, for the entire trip I was pretty blank on navigating in the Tokyo subway, so figured I would need some extra time to get myself to the stadium. True to form I got lost within two transfers on the subway. The Tokyo subway can be a pretty intense place, tons of people, lots of signs, and long distances to walk between the different lines. Just as I was starting to panic a bit, I suddenly walked past a man with a huge cowboy hat with some sort of fluffy squirl/rat mascot on top and a red and blue scarf. Even in Tokyo he looked out of place if he wasn’t going to some sort of game. I turned around and got on the same train as him, hoping for the best. As we were making stops there were a steady flow of people in team colours getting on, letting me know that I was on the right train.
When we got to our station it had started to rain. A lot. I wasn’t that keen on getting soaked since I was wearing the clothes I would be wearing for my 20 hour trip back home the same night, so when I got to the ticket office I tried to communicate to the several people who came to my aid that the only important thing for me was to be under a roof. “Roof!” ROOF!” I eloquently explained to them while making nonsensical gestures above my head. “No rain!” “Dry!”. They pulled out a map of the stadium and I tried to explain to them again that all I wanted was to be under the roof, and preferably in the home section if possible. They pointed at a section and I gave them both thumbs up and said ok. Then they started pointing at other sections, all the while explaining something to me in Japanese that I didn’t understand. Every time they pointed at a new section I said “yeah that’s fine, ok” while trying to shove my thumbs up even closer to their faces. After an embarrassingly long time, with lots of people waiting in line behind me in the rain, I finally got my ticket for 3000 yen.
Then came the thing I feared the most. Since we didn’t have an hotel room anymore I was lugging away on all my camera equipment. I didn’t want to leave it in the lobby with the rest of the luggage. Other stadiums I have been to do not allow you to take camera equipment inside. I have had to leave my camera at the gate both in Norway and Germany before (in the mid 90's I almost had my shitty poket camera confiscated at Stamford Bridge for taking pics 50 meters from the pitch before the players had come on), and I didn’t really want to give it to someone here as I had no good way of explaining to them that I really wanted it back afterwards. Everyone in front of me had their bags searched as they went in, and when it was my turn I opened the camera bag, the guy took one look, said “ah!” and waved me through without checking anything. I don’t know if he thought I was a journalist, and I didn’t stop to ask.
Spurred on by my communication success when getting the ticket I decided to try get a cup of coffee before finding my entrance. I had of course forgotten the Japanese term for coffee for about the 25th time since arriving. “Do you have coffee? Black coffe?... just regular black coffee?... black?” “No... We have hot coffee! Only hot!” As I said, hot coffee, impossible to remember. Walking to my entrance i came up to some merch stands and went to try to find a scarf and a pint glass. I always try to buy a pint glass when I go to stadiums abroad but in Japan drinking beer doesn’t seem to be as big a part of the football culture as in Europe. During the trip I had looked for pint glasses in every football shop I came across with no success (I did come across some Sanfrecce Hiroshima FC biscuits though). After looking through several places I ended up with some kind of manga figure instead. Later in the day I was assured by some drunk salary men in a restaurant that it is a very known character from a very popular Japanese tv show or something like that.
I spent a lot of time in the merch stands but I figured that since there were so many other people who still hadn't gone into the stands yet there it was no problem getting in. And after all I had my seat anyway. Of course it turned out that it was free seating, and all the smart people had already been inside leaving something on all the seats under the roof so they were all taken. I tried several places, but the rain was pissing down on all the empty seats. Stupid gaijin. I decided to stand behind all the seats instead. Then I found out I was in the away end.
To my surprise , just before kick off, the home supporters started to sing You’ll never walk alone. I took this as a good sign for the LFC-Everton semi later that night that i would miss because of the flight.
As the game started I couldn't help but being impressed by the supporters of both teams. Ajinomoto is a big stadium with a 50 000 capacity and it was nowhere near sold out. I think the atmosphere would have benefited greatly if it had been a much smaller and more intimate stadium, but the people who had showed up was on fine form. Especially considering the pouring rain and the cold.
The game itself wasn't exactly mind blowing, and the thing I remember the most form the first half was the fact that I was freezing my bollocks off. One of the biggest chances of the first 45 minutes came when Tokyos goalkeeper picked up a backpass and Kashima got an indirect free kick inside Tokyos penalty box. Nothing came of it though and it was 0-0 at half time.
The second half was about as inspiring as the first, and except from Tokyos goalkeeper getting injured and substituted nothing much happened until Kashima took the lead in the 66th minute. When this happened I decided to walk over to the home supporters end. I didn't see any security and neither any need for it, and I could easily walk anywhere I wanted.
When I got over to the home end, it was Tokyos turn to get an indirect free kick inside Kashimas penalty box because of a back pass picked up by the goalkeeper. A totally wrong decision by the ref in my opinion. Tokyo blew the first chance but got a new one becuse a defender moved too early, and this time they buried it. Game on and still six minutes and overtime to go. Tokyo put the preassure on Kashami and had several chances to turn the game to their advantage. And just as me and the rest of the Tokyo end thought this was going our way, Kashami scored the last goal of the game in the 94th minute. The game ended 1-2, and I started to realize that I'm not exactly a lucky talisman for home teams. The last month I have seen Roma - Lazio 1-2, PSG - Bordeaux 1-1 and now Tokyo - Kashami 1-2. Sorry I jinxed you Tokyo. Until next time!
Video of the Kashima Antlers supporters : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rgqOmGXahs
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Groundhopper
Stadioner der jeg har sett Bodø/Glimt. Lagene i parantes er mostandere:
-Lerkendal (Rosenborg, Strindheim)
-Nadderud (Stabæk)
-Ullevaal (Bla. Vålerenga, Lyn, Strømsgodset, Tromsø, Rosenborg og Trabzonspor)
-Falkum og Skagerak Stadion (Odd)
-Åråsen (Lillestrøm)
-Nye og gamle Fredrikstad Stadion (Fredrikstad)
-Gjemselund (Kongsvinger)
-Briskeby (Ham Kam)
-Bislett (Manglerud/Star, Skeid)
-Melløs (Moss)
-Ski Stadion (Follo)
-Marienlyst Stadion (Strømsgodset)
-Viking Stadion (Viking)
-Alfheim (Tromsø)
-Color Line Stadion (Aalesund)
-Komplett.no Arena (Sandefjord)
-Nedre Eiker stadion (Mjøndalen)
-Sarpsborg Stadion (Sarpsborg 08)
-DNB Nor Arena (Ranheim)
-Varden Amfi (Løv-Ham)
-Strømmen Stadion (Strømmen)
-AKA Arena (Hønefoss)
-UKI Arena (Ull/Kisa)
Uten Glimt :
Norge:
-Lambertseter Match (Manglerud Star)
-Grei Kunstgress (Groruddalen)
-Ullern Gress (Ullern)
-Korsvoll Kunstgress (Korsvoll - Glimt 2)
-Grefsen Kunstgress (Kjelsås - Glimt 2)
Utlandet:
-Anfield (Liverpool)
-Boleyn Ground (West Ham)
-Celtic Park (Celtic)
-Hampden Park (Skottland)
-St. James' park (Newcastle)
-Stamford Bridge (Chelsea)
-White Hart Lane (Tottenham)
-Ibrox (Glasgow Rangers)
-Millerntor-Stadion (St. Pauli)
-AOL Arena / HSH Nordbank Arena (Hamburger SV)
-Craven Cottage (Fulham)
-Stadion Hidegkuti Nándor (MTK Hungária FC)
- Parken (FC København, Norge)
-Stadio Olimpico (Roma-Lazio)
Parc des Princes (Paris Saint-Germain)
-Ajinomoto Stadium (F.C. Tokyo)
Stadioner jeg har vært på omvisning på uten å ha sett kamp :
-Amsterdam Arena (Ajax)
-Camp Nou (Barcelona)
-Goodison Park (Everton)
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Live pics
Nachtmystium live at the Inferno metal festival 2010 :
Headwalking at a Madball show at Garage Oslo 2008 :
Gorilla Biscuits live at Garage Oslo 2007 :
Street Dogs live at John Dee 2009 :
The Cumshots live at Øyafestivalen 2010 :
A Life Once Lost live at Garage Oslo :
Inevitable End live at Betong 2009 :
The Carburetors live at Wild at heart, Berlin 2008 :
Biohazard live at Garage Oslo 2008:
Sick of it all live somewhere in London 2006 :
Vinny Stigma of Agnostic Front at The Underworld, London 2004 :
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Beste plater i 2011
I tilfeldig rekkefølge:
The horrible crowes – Elsie
Oslo ess – Uleste bøker og utgåtte sko
Stein Torleif Bjella – Vonde visu
Booze & glory – Trouble free
Mastodon – The hunter
Jimmy Cliff – Sacred fire
Graveyard – Hisingen blues
Tom Waits – Bad as me
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Beste konserter i 2011
I tilfeldig rekkefølge:
Slayer –Sentrum scene
Stein Torleif Bjella – Rockefeller
Oslo ess – Rockefeller
Suicidal Tendencies – Skateparken
Flere bilder her : http://www.flickr.com/photos/glimt1916/sets/72157627499336560/
OFF! - Øyafestivalen
Den gamle grinebiteren og hedersmannen Keith Morris, kjent fra Circle Jerks og salige Black Flag, er ute og rir igjen. Off!’s The first four EP’s fra 2010 er et særdeles vellykket tilbakesteg til punk og hardcore fra tiden da spesielt nevnte Black Flag satte standarden for det meste som skulle komme etter.
Off! består av nevnte Morris og tre andre herrer med fartstid fra flere forskjellige band som Redd Kross, Rocket form the crypt og Hot snakes. Selv om festet til Morris sine dreadlocks begynner å bli farlig tynt så står ikke sinnet og energien hans tilbake fra sine yngre bandkollegaer. Det er tidvis litt pauser mellom låtene men er nok mer fordi han er glad i å prate enn fordi han er tom for pust. Og det kan nok trenges litt pauseprat også, for bandet koster rimelig kjapt gjennom en backingkatalog som ikke har rukket å bli så veldig lang enda.
Band som dette gjør seg selvfølgelig best i en liten svett klubb og ikke på en stor festivalscene med avsperringer mellom seg selv og publikum, men det er ikke bandets feil. De gjør jobben, selv om publikum står musestille med pilsen i hånda i strålende solskinn. Tight, kjapt, sint og aldeles strålende
OFF! - Darkness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKkiuD8TRUY&feature=relmfu
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