If you ask me, watching an “away” game of your team surrounded by dozens, hundreds, thousands of the home team fans, is like having sex in a public place, and not just in any country, but in certain countries where “having sex in public places” is PARTICULARLY wrong, say... Middle Eastern hardcore Muslim ones (not that I have ever tried the latter). You're definitely enjoying it, but you do know that if you get “caught”, it won't be just “awkward” and “embarrassing”, but downright dangerous...
At least that's the case if you are a PAOK fan, and you're watching your team play at Kaftanzoglio stadium among thousands of Iraklis fans, many of whom, and not just the most fanatic of them, simply detest PAOK (“detest” in this case rather being an understatement).
It was a Cup game (Iraklis are playing in the second category this year, so no championship duels between the two neighbors -our stadiums are just over a thousand meters away, as the crow flies- this season), round of 16, first leg. How many fans showed up? A few thousand, “several” by Iraklis' standards, fans, many of whom, I bet, would have skipped paying the 10-15-20 euros for a ticket, if it wasn't for the name of the opponent, and what a game against PAOK means to them(...).
Oh... How many PAOK fans made it to the stadium, you wonder? “Officially”, none. You see, in Greece, home teams are not obliged to give tickets to visiting teams. It's really up to them, depends on whether or not two clubs are getting along with each other, whether or not they are linked with some historic ties, what their organized supporters feel about each other, and even if two teams agree on having, both of them, fans on their side, in the end it comes down to the police to say the final “yes” or “no”.
What the atmosphere looked (and smelled) like, just before kickoff
In yesterday's case, PAOK asked for tickets, but Iraklis, simply, declined the request. Of course, any PAOK fan could... dress moderately, skip carrying a black and white scarf, avoid bringing along anything with the batch of the club, go buy a ticket, and enter, BUT, PAOK fans could not watch the game as a separate group, sitting at some specially allocated part of the stands. How many dared the “on my own, so help me God” thing? No idea. Just before the hour mark, PAOK scored, that was the only goal of the match, I looked around curious to see if anyone would jump out of his seat and spontaneously shout “goal!” (which later he would seriously regret), but I didn't see any...
As for me, I may be unemployed these days, but I can still use my Press pass to watch games. In the first half, I chose a super quiet corner of the stands, a few meters away from the closest fans, but when one of “my” players hit the horizontal post I aaaalmost disclosed my... secret identity.
The second half I watched it standing at some densely “populated” part of the stands (so as to be closer to the part of the pitch where PAOK were attacking), and what... saved me when we scored, was that the goal was... spectacularly UNspectacular, just a little kick of the ball from a super close distance after a parallel cross, plus, it took me a second to... make sure the goal was good, that the assistant ref had not raised his flag for an offside.
Besides, no one else was celebrating, for a few seconds it was like someone had pressed some “mute” button, and then, hesitantly, some Iraklis fans started yelling in disappointment, so... a little this, a little that, the first “crucial” 10-15 seconds passed without opening my mouth (or doing any “expressive” gesture), so... my butt was safe.
All in all, I'm glad I went, I got to watch my team (despite the fact that I'm used, by now, to them not playing attractive football, no matter if we are second in the championship, behind only Olympiakos), I got to visit a stadium I hadn't been to for almost ten years (last time I watched a game there, was during the 2004 Olympic Games, USA-Brazil, 2-0, women, group stage. Later on they faced each other again, in the Gold Medal match, and the US won again), plus, I got to “test” a new small Nikon photo camera I recently bought, see how it “performs” in “night matches” conditions. To the camera I give a good mark, to the stadium atmosphere... mmmm... not really. When I was younger, Kaftanzoglio used to be full when Iraklis faced PAOK, with more than 30,000 fans of both teams creating a tense, true, occasionally, but definitely “worth experiencing” atmosphere. Yesterday, with a big part of the stands “deserted”, and with PAOK fans nowhere to be seen and heard, the atmosphere... let's say... “left a lot to be desired”...
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