My Experience with a Russian Soccer Game, erm..Football Match

Hello again!

I am keeping my word. Here's another blog. I would like to share my experience with my first Russian football match. If I had one word to describe this whole experience, I would choose the word "chaos." From the time we boarded the metro to the time we arrived at our destination, we saw at least 100 policemen and greeted to the chant of, "Spartak!" followed by three distinct claps. From there it felt like sheer pandemonium. There were people EVERYWHERE! Everyone was dressed in red because the two clubs playing that night both wore that as their primary color. The match that we went to watch was Spartak vs. Locomotiv.

After waiting in "line" for a while and successfully making through three security pat downs and bag checks, we made it into the stadium. Since we didn't really have any affiliation to either team, our game plan was to cheer for whoever's section we were in. There was one problem..our seats were located right in the middle of the two sides. I had a gut feeling about Spartak so I decided to cheer for them.


The match started off normal enough. There were fireworks, a national anthem (Russian, of course), and the introduction of both teams. The match was fairly slow for much of the first half until Spartak struck with two goals towards the end of the first half. That proved to be enough for the victory. You're thinking, "Great..he told us the ending. Story's over." Wrong! The second half is where all the fun started.

Shortly after the second half began, we all started noticing very bright flares being lit on the Spartak side of the field. All of the sudden, these flares were being thrown onto the field. This is where the term "chaos" comes into play. Men dressed in firefighter garb began running to and fro, trying to stamp out the flares before fires began. The following pictures show the scene:

Yes, that is a chair on fire. One of the many that we saw during this time. So anyway, as you can see, things weren't really controlled..on the inside. The entire walk from the stadium to the metro station (about a mile or so), the sidewalk was lined with riot police. At least several hundred of these men in full gear made sure that no "Green Street Hooligans" fights broke out. Needless to say, it was one amazing experience. Everyone should go to at least one match. That's all I have for now. Peace out.