'Adventure Independiente' - Match Day I

17 may 2006

some of you may already know, dhanesh and i couldn't get hold of any accomodation for the night of the CL Finals. we were prepared to brave it out in the elements but thank God for rizam and jessie for they graciously offered to house us for the night. so we checked out of comfort hotel early and headed straight to their hotel.

we boldly walked into the hotel but was promptly stopped by a jumpy receptionist.
'excuz me, where ar ewe going?'
'we're visiting a friend.'
'oh, no no no. ewe cannot vizit. who iz your friend?
'rizam. we're actually putting our bags for a while and will collect them before the game.'
'ewe will leav before zee game? ewe don't gimme zee trouble yez?'
'no. no trouble.'

phew... for a moment, we thought we had to sleep in the metro.

after a quick breakfast, we headed to the Stade again. reached the familiar structure at 11am and started the familiar routine: keep walking round the stadium looking for 'thug-looking' touts, asking if they have spare tickets. then bargain in vain after hearing ridiculous prices for the tickets...

you guys cannot imagine how miserable the whole episode was for us. TRY to imagine this: the huge magnificent Stade de France, which was going to showcase possibly the greatest CL Finals of all time, sitting in front of you but you can't even smell the grass cos of the lack of some small piece of paper which we would have to cough out 2,500 - 5,000 euros (S$5,000 - S$10,000) for. so close but yet so freaking far. and all that after flying for 17 hours from Singapore... miserable is an understatement.

after a while, we realise that the going rate was about 2,500 - 3,000 euros per ticket, which dwarfed our budget of 750 euros. a typical 'chat' with a tout:
*walks together slowly* 'you have ticket?'
*looks around many times* 'how mutch ewe pah?'
*still walking* 'how much you want?'
'i gif ewe good seetz. 3,000 euros.'
'3 tickets?'
*shows thumb* 'non. one. good seetz. in centur.'
'i give you 1,000 for one ticket.'
*laughs & walks off*
'bastard...'
here's a pic of one of many 'chats'. you know which is the tout.

demand is definitely greater than supply. there are possibly 9 out of 10 people around the stadium without those precious tickets. we even saw a big japanese group with a tour guide scouting for tickets. definitely a no-hoper. almost everyone was looking and asking. i was also approached a couple of times. things looked bleak.

anyway, we gave ourselves a deadline till 6pm before seriously bargaining with these touts. so we tried to lift our spirits with some 'spirits' and people watching. there were all sorts of colourful characters. compared to us, we looked really really mild in our Arsenal shirts and scarves. they came in all shapes and sizes. and many of them wore chef hats. i wonder why. hmm... here's some memorable shots for you guys:

i didn't forget about the barca fans. you can see it was a real carnival outside the stadium. no threats of violence at all. soccer was the real winner. everyone bonded...

out of the blue, the crowd just started to sing Steve Bould's song. i initially thought they were poking fun at some bald guy but lo & behold, it was the man himself!!! we couldn't get him stand still but i guess he'll be mobbed if he did.

and after that, we also met ryan smith & his pal, brad. really nice, down-to-earth chaps. we spoke for quite a bit: about his loan stint at leicester when he scored against sp*rs in the FA Cup (good lad!) and the possibility of breaking through to the 1st team. he couldn't get us tickets, of course, but he did say he'd try to get us a set of the team's signature on our 'Singapore Gooners' banner. i guess he really gave it to us for travelling all the way from the other side of the world without match tickets...

although the festivities were at a high, we were still unable to soak everything in. our minds were still caught in the very possible realisation that we may not be able to get into the stadium and may have to watch the game from a pub, which would have been no different from watching it with the other Singapore Gooners in elizabeth lounge. i was about to go into depression.

time was slowly ticking away...