Soccer Made in Romania

and so when I got home from Bucharest this afternoon, UPS came to my house and delivered these.

Operation Vukraine part 1

more about this operation in future blog.

I want to share with you a few thoughts about the Europa League Final last night.

at Bucharest Airport



When I arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday night, I turned on the TV and the Romanian sports channel was discussing not the biggest soccer match played in Romania on the next day, the Europa League Final. Instead they were talking about a derby match in Cluj that night.

There was a fight among the players during the game and the referee had to call it off.

Not a nice way to introduce Romanian soccer to the +30,000 foreign fans in town for the big Final.

But next day, my impression got more positive. Both fan zones were well organized. There were free buses to bring the fans from the fan zones to the new stadium. The security control was efficient. And the new stadium has plenty of spaces around for fans to hang out.

Before going to the match, I hired a driver to bring me around to visit the grounds of the 3 big clubs in Bucharest: Steaua, Dinamo, and Rapid.

Rapid stadium

Steaua stadium

Dinamo stadium



As I saw these old but famous grounds, I thought to myself  'would it not be nice to meet some of the famous former Romanian players?'. But I had the cheapest ticket (35 USD) for the match so I did not think my chance is very good.

When I got to the stadium, I discovered that not only my cheap seat is in a section next to the main tribune, but  to get to my section, I had to go through a check point that separated the poor from the rich. and so I was on the other side of the fence.

look who is at the VIP entrance?

so for the next 2 hours, I met Pierluigi Collina, Vicente del Bosque, Geoff Thompson, Michel Platini, Enrique Cerezo, Patrick Müller, the Prime Minister of Romania, the Princess of Romania, etc and I took photos of them.

but they were not the people I was excited to see. These were the people I was thrilled to meet.



Ioan Lupescu of Dinamo and Bayer Leverkusen



Dorinel Munteanu of Steaua and Cologne

Gica Craioveanu of Uni Craiova and Getafe and the one and only Hagi



and the best moment was when Mr. Emerich Jenei arrived. He was the trainer of the Steaua side that defeated Barcelona to win the European Cup Final in 1986.



I did not hang around to say hello to the Prince of Spain. I went to my seat with 30 minutes to spare and watched the opening ceremony.



the stadium was almost full, much to my surprises. both Spanish clubs brought many supporters and the local fans turned out in full. This was not the case in my last 2 Europa League Final (Istanbul and Dublin). In both cases, once the local team was eliminated, the local fans stayed away.

Bravo Romania.

The match was full of action. The fans behaved. 3 great goals.

To make sure the game is on prime time TV in western Europe (i.e. 20.45), the local kick-off time was 15 minutes before 10 PM. so the game ended just before midnight.

the  Metro had stopped running and the free buses were only carrying the fans back to airport. for those fans who paid for a hotel room to sleep, we were left with the entertaining task of negotiating the price of a taxi ride. after midnight in Bucharest, the advantages go to the taxi drivers.

well soon, I will be off to Ukraine for the EURO. more matches late at night. the adventure continues...

Soccer Made in Australia

I am Zurich airport right now, waiting for my flight to Paris and from there to Bucharest for the Europa League Final. 24 hours to the match. I hope to meet Mr Platini tomorrow because I have an idea on how to make soccer more entertaining.

I got the idea while on holidays last month in Australia.

I attended a playoff match of the A-League in Perth. It was Perth Glory vs Wellington Phoenix of New Zealand.

I liked the stadium, the small but noisy crowd (less than 14,000 fans), and the end to end action. Perth won the game 3-2 in extra time. So I saw 5 goals and there were also fireworks.

But I felt something was missing. Something to make soccer more entertaining.

If you think about a soccer game, the referee and the assistants are most of the time very boring to watch. Should they be allowed to do a few things different to spice up the sports?

Well it is not an original idea. Before that A-League game in Perth, I was on the other side of Australia. In Brisbane, I went to see a game of Australian rules football. This sports is a mix of rugby, basketball and soccer.

I enjoyed the match of the Brisbane Lions but the best part for me was the team of referees. After a team scores, one of the referees would perform a motion that reminds me of a cowboy pulling out his revolver and shooting. Then he would go get a flag and wave.

And when the ball goes out of bound, it is the referee who puts it back in play. And how he does it is really cool. check out the video below.

I think the soccer referees should copy some of the moves of the referees from Australian rules football.

I wonder if Mr Platini would be open to my idea?
 

Soccer Made in Singapore

This is a story about the 4 S: the S league, the Shirt, the Sandal, and Sepak Takraw.

On the way to Australia 2 weeks ago, I made a stop in Singapore to see my friend Tobias. I told him there was a soccer match that night and he agreed to go with me.

check out my sandals

I found Singapore to be very clean, cleaner than Switzerland. The taxi driver told me that the fine for throwing/leaving thrash in public is up to 1000 Singapore dollars (about 800 USD). He also told me that the trash police is not visible as they are in plain clothes.

so when we got to the stadium, I tried to remind myself to throw away the soda cup or the rice container when finished. The match ticket costed us only 5 Singapore dollars each. I did not want to pay 1000 Singapore dollars at a soccer game.

outside the stadium, I saw a stand selling shirts of the home team, Woodlands Wellington FC. So I went over and was trying to decide if I should buy a medium or  large shirt. The sales lady took one look at me and said 'you are XL!' She then told me to turn around and she put an XL shirt up on my back to measure.

I bought the XL shirt. I felt like a big man.

We entered the stadium and saw that the main tribune had 3 sections. The middle section was made up of plastic chairs and on either side, there were concrete steps. I told Tobias, hey we bought the most expensive tickets, we sit in the middle. so far so good.

It was a match of the S League: Woodlands Wellington FC vs Hougang United FC. 

Kick-off 7.30 PM. Weather: warm and humid.

welcome to the S League

 Shortly before kick-off, I went to the toilet. After some searching, I found the toilet. It was below the main tribune. And I found out it was next to the locker room of the referees.

So when I left the toilet, the 4 referees were coming out of the locker room. I looked around. It was only me and them. I let them passed and then I followed them through the entrance tunnel.

now I have taken many many photos of referees and players and officials leaving the tunnel while I was in the stand. But this is my first photo from inside the tunnel.

I escorted the referees out

I came out of the tunnel and no one ran up to check my credentials. I stood on the running track for some minutes and then I went up to join Tobias in the plastic seats.

But before I could get to my friend, a security guard approached me. 

He said 'you cannot sit here'

I said 'I bought the most expensive ticket'

He said 'You wear sandals. No shoes, no VIP seats'

I was very mad. It was warm and humid. Both Tobias and I wore sandals. and we had to go to the concrete section.

We sat next to several groups of school children. They were given drinks and foods and were told to make lots of noises. They were urged on by the official cheer leaders of the home team. but these kids cheered no matter who scored.

When Hougang United FC scored first, the kids not only cheered. They also threw paper in the air. 

Thrash throwing in public place in Singapore!!! but nothing happened. may be the trash police had the night off.

Hougang won 3-1. There were 688 people in attendance, including those groups of school kids.

There were a couple of decent players but overall, the S League was just ok to watch.

The next day, I went to a gym to watch Sepak Takraw, a sports popular in Southeast Asia. The match consists of 3 players on each side and the court is similar to badmington. They play with a ball made up of rattan and the player can use any part of the body but their hands.

The match I saw was between some juniors but they were pretty good. As I watched these juniors played, I thought if these same players would play soccer, the next Messi will be from Singapore.

Enjoy the 16 second video of Sepak Takraw.

new Singapore stamp of Vuzinho and a Sepak Takraw ball

The Polish Inspection Part 2

I went to Wroclaw, Poland for three reasons.

One was an actuarial pilgrimage. Back in the 17th century, the city of Wroclaw kept precise records of births and deaths and this data was used by Edmond Halley to analyse mortality. In 1693, Halley published the world's first actuarial table.

For me, it does not get anymore exciting than this - being an actuary and visiting Wroclaw.

Old Town Wroclaw

The second reason for my visit was to inspect the new stadium, ready to host 3 matches at the EURO.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I went to see a Polish first division match between Slask Wroclaw and Cracovia Krakow. Cracovia is last in the league but Slask had not won a match in 2012.

The best moment took place before the game. During the warm-up, a Cardinal came out. He waved to the crowd, threw some holy water on the grass, and kicked a ball.

Slask scored on a penalty after 3 minutes. They got two more in the first half and then cruised for the rest of the game. A comfortable 3-0 home win. First win of 2012 for Slask. Talk about divine intervention.

The new stadium was easy to reach from downtown. All the seats have good view of the pitch. and Wroclaw is a lovely city to visit.

The third and last reason for my visit here was to see the Panorama of the Battle of Raclawice.

This is a panoramic painting describing the battle in which Polish soldiers and peasants defeated the superior Russian army in April 1794. In Polish history books, this battle is considered to be a major event despite the fact that Poland went on to lose the war and the country was divided up among the 3 neighboring powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Poland did not become independent again until after World War I.

This painting was created in 1894 in Lwow, a city that was a part of Poland until Russia took it after World War II. Today Lwow is known as Lviv and is part of Ukraine.

For a long time, Wroclaw was part of Prussia/Germany and was known as Breslau. At the end of World War II, there were almost 200,000 Germans and less than 20,000 Polish living in Breslau. Stalin sent most of these Germans to West Germany and forced most of Polish from Lwow to move to Breslau. He also gave Breslau to Poland instead of East Germany. and so Breslau became Wroclaw.

Both Lviv and Wroclaw are host cities of the EURO 2012.

When the draw was made for the EURO, many people said Group A is the easiest group. I am not sure.

Whenever you put Poland, Russia, and Czech Republic in the same group, it will not just be another soccer game between these countries.

Wroclaw is not far from the Czech border and Czech Republic gets to play all their Group A games here. It will be like home games for the Czechs but the business people of Wroclaw are worried. They expect the Czech fans to just come for the games and go home right after.


On Friday June 8, the EURO Championship will open. Russia will face Czech Republic in Wroclaw. Do you think it will just be another football game?

I wonder if the Russian fans will visit the Panorama?

if not, they can see for free the Panorama in my first published video

Soccer Made in Incredible India

There are about 1.2 billion people living in India and cricket is by far the most popular sports there. so you can imagine how a certain Association would feel if these 1.2 billion people become interested in soccer. Next week, a certain Swiss man is coming to India to find ways to convince the people there that soccer is great.

so I decided to go to Mumbai ahead of that Swiss man to find out if soccer has a chance to succeed in India. I picked a Sunday when Air India FC, a team from Mumbai, played at home.

Gateway of India in Mumbai



a few weeks before my trip, I found out that FIFA just gave money to the All India Football Federation to renovate the main soccer stadium in Mumbai. then I found out the home games of Air India FC were moved to Pune, a city 150 km north of Mumbai. Imagine Grasshoppers Club of Zurich playing their homes games in Basel! Incredible!

so when I got to Mumbai, I asked my hotel to hire a driver to show me around town and to bring me to Pune to see the I League match between Air India FC and Chirag United of Kerala. I also asked the hotel concierge to confirm the kick-off time.

It was not easy. Air India FC does not have their own website. There was no kick-off information in the local newspapers. and when I searched the internet, the answer ranged from 11 AM to 6 PM. Incredible.

After searching and calling, the concierge told me kick-off was 3.30 PM.

I asked my driver how long to get to Pune. About 3 hours, depending on traffic. I told my driver to pick me up at 11 AM on Sunday. I wanted to get to the stadium in plenty of time.

The traffic was not too bad on Sunday. As we approached Pune, it was close to 2 PM. I thought to myself maybe I should look around the city first. But suddenly we arrived at the stadium so I said to myself let's buy the ticket first.

The stadium was located next to the freeway. When we got off the freeway, we went down an one way road to get to the main entrance. The gate was closed. I thought to myself damn the game was at 11 AM and I missed it. The driver honked and a guard appeared. He told us the entrance today was back near where we got off the freeway.

my driver backed up the car and sped down the one way road. in the opposite of all the other cars. Incredible.

we found the entrance and I bought a ticket. 50 rupees or about 1 USD. I asked if it was a seating ticket and was told you have VIP ticket. then I asked the kick-off time. answer was 2.45PM. Incredible.

Sports complex in Pune

I had to climb 2 sets of stairs to get to my section. It turned out I did not have a VIP ticket. I had a VVIP ticket. Incredible.

very very important person?

there were about 100 fans at the game. many were families and friends of the players and some were kids hanging around. in my VVIP section, there were some officials and one guy was there to video the game.

I league match number 139

Air India FC lost the match 3-1. They scored first after 5 minutes due to a comedy of errors by the defense of Chirag United. But Chirag regrouped and dominated the match and was given a soft penalty to tie 1-1. There were two other possible penalties for Chirag but the referee did not give them.

For the first half, Air India played with 5 defenders. After Chirag scored a cracking goal early in the second half, Air India continued to play with 5 defenders. Incredible.

down 2-1, Air India had a great chance to score. there was a mayhem in front of Chirag goal and the goalie was out of position. an Air India player kicked the ball toward the empty net. a Chirag defender was on the ground. the ball was flying just above and in front of his head. he lunged forward and slapped the ball away with his hand.

every player stopped and looked at the referee. he waived play on. a man in my VVIP section shouted to the videoman to erase that incident. Incredible.

Air India finally gave up on the 5 men defense and pushed more players forward but could not score.Chirag went on a break away and a forward in offside position scored. Incredible.

As the referee left the field, I checked the badge on his shirt and saw that he was a full FIFA referee. very interesting.

after the game, my driver drove me back to Mumbai in record time. only 2 hours. with the same traffic. Incredible.

as I watched my driver weaving in and out of traffic, I said to myself forget soccer, Formula One should try to recruit these Indian drivers.

I am sure my driver can beat Alonso and Vettel and all these pros. My driver was amazing and she is only 22 years old. Incredible.

my driver at the Mumbai tourist bureau



The Year of the Dragon

in a few days, the Chinese New Year will start. It will be the year of the dragon and as I am a dragon, I had BIG plan to become a superstar in 3 sports, in 3 sports, in 3 sports.

so last year, I made preparations.

In January 2011, I began to learn to ski downhill. I really liked it. I also began to watch more ski competitions on TV. Ski is very popular here and one of the biggest ski stars is Didier Cuche

I dreamed of flying downhill like Didier.



then came summer and my friend Jimmy said to me, 'Sebastian, you love soccer so much! why don't you play for the company team'

my company has 4 soccer teams and its own soccer field.

I made inquiry and the coach of the senior team asked me to meet him for interview. 

he is Spanish and loves Barca. but his style reminded more of Mourinho.

during the interview, he asked me what position I want to play (imagine Mou asking a new player this).

I did not want to run a lot so I said right back, like Cafu.

he told me to come to training and what to bring. No problem. I wanted to be a mix of Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. so I had to decide on a tattoo and the right hair gel.

at the first training, we played a friendly game against the company B team. I was very proud of my tattoo but Mourinho did not like it. It turned out I was the only player on the field with a visible tattoo.

 me and my friend Jimmy from the B team

during the warm-up, Mourinho told us to keep the ball on the ground and to make short passes. we had to play tiki-taka soccer.

my company senior soccer team

well I started at right back and after my first run down the wing to deliver a cross like Beckham, I was out of breath and could not get back to defense.

it was obvious that I was in no shape to play right back. after the game, Mourinho let me stay on the team but only as a substitute. in subsequent games, he put me in left wing to minimize any damage I can cause. whenever I got on the field, I was not Cafu anymore but I was Shevchenko.

at the end of the soccer season, Mourinho told all the players to stay in shape during the winter. no problem. I hit the gym, played indoor soccer and then I even learned a new sport, skating.

my soccer team is organizing a skating event next week so during Christmas, I took private lessons to learn to skate.  

when I got back to work on Jan 3, 2012, I found out the event is not ice skating. it is ice hockey. how hard can it get???

so I dreamed of being an ice hockey star (like Koivu of the Anaheim Ducks), in addition of being a ski star and a soccer star.

this is my year. this dragon will FLY.

Not.

last Saturday, just one week before the start of the year of the dragon. I had a fall in my ski class. no broken bones but some of my ligaments are damaged.

I cannot ski like Didier Vuche for a while. I will not be Shevuchenko this summer. and next week, no ice hockey game for this Koivu.

I have been going around on crutches.

but I have decided to use all these newly founded free time to work on 2 personal projects. I hope to share with you the successes of these projects later this year.

until then, Happy New Year of the Dragon!

The Polish Inspection - Part 1

In less than 24 hours, the draw for the EURO 2012 will take place. There will be 4 groups and it has already been decided that Poland and Ukraine are the top seeds in Group A and D. Spain and Holland are the other top seeds. Whoever gets the top seed in Group B will play all their first round games in Gdansk. The other will play in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

I am sure that fans from Spain and Holland are praying for their team to get in Group B. Gdansk is a very attractive city on the Baltic Sea.

I went to Gdansk last weekend to inspect the new stadium. When I arrived at the little airport on Friday, I was impressed to see people working to build a new terminal - it was after midnight.

under construction

The next day, I walked around this charming town - lovely architecture. One of my favorite buildings was this one:

the oldest KFC in the world?

But I had to look hard for any sign that the EURO is coming. It was almost like Gdansk wanted to keep this a secret.

old town in Gdansk

The stadium in Gdansk was brand new. It was in a run-down industrial area and I took a tram to get there. Along the way, I saw people working on laying down new tracks for more tram lines. It was Saturday!

This stadium reminded me of Soccer City in Joburg. The orange-yellow color represented amber for which Gdansk is famous.

Lechia Gdansk had a home match last weekend but the Polish League decided (only a few weeks before) to play this game on Monday night. My return flight was in the afternoon.

So I checked the schedule and saw that there was a match in Poznan on late Sunday afternoon. Poznan is another Polish host city for the EURO and it is about 300 km south of Gdansk. According to UEFA guide to the EURO, a train between these 2 cities would take 4 hours.

When I got to the Gdansk train station, I found out that the fastest Polish train would take 6.5 hours. I bought a first class ticket to go on Sunday morning. It was cheap and the train was old. But first class was not crowded and there was also a dining cart.

Much to my delight, the train arrived in Poznan 6 minutes ahead of schedule. Poznan has a nice big square in the old town. I went there for a nice lunch before the match.

pierogi lunch

I found out that Aida was being performed that night and as my return train was at 2.30 AM, I decided to go both to the soccer match and to the opera.

After lunch, I walked around the city a bit more and like Gdansk, I saw no signs about the EURO.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the opera house to buy a ticket. From there, I took a bus to the stadium and arrived 30 minutes before kick-off.

There was a long line of people at the ticket window (Kasa) but after several minutes, I noticed that it was moving very slowly. Then I saw another window with less people but the word above it was 'Karta Kibica.' I wondered if this meant credit card?

I asked a friendly polish fan in line 'what is karta kibica?'

He pulled what looked like a credit card out of his jacket and said to me 'it is a fan card. you need one to buy a ticket. do you have one?'

I told him I came from Vietnam to see this game so he took pity and he went to ask an official what I could do. When he came back, he told me I had to go first to the 'karta kibica' window to apply a fan card and I would get a temporary card and with that, I could go back to the 'kasa' window and buy a match ticket.

At that moment, I could hear the stadium announcement of the players. It was 5 minutes to kick-off and I estimated that I would not get in until half time. There were still so many fans waiting to buy tickets.

 pilka nozna (polish for soccer)

I decided to skip the game and went back to town to relax and enjoy Aida.

Aida 1 Pilka Nozna 0.

The opera was fantastic. The game, I read later, was not so good.

At 2.30 AM, I boarded the train to get back to Gdansk for my 1 PM flight. I managed to sleep and when I woke up at 7AM, the train was not moving. After some time, it moved at the speed of a slow bicyclist. Then it speeded up and then it stopped again.

And I had no idea where in Poland I was. The train was scheduled to arrive at 9 AM. When I found a conductor and asked him for news, he said to me 'we will be about 3 hours late'

300 km in almost 10 hours. should I have walked?

There will be a lot of fans traveling between Gdansk and Poznan as all the group B matches will be played in these 2 cities. I hope there will be faster trains next summer.

I arrived in Gdansk and went to the airport but missed my flight by about 20 minutes. I got another ticket to travel with LOT. First I had to fly from Gdansk to Warsaw and when I saw the old airplane, I wondered if it would be faster to take the slow train.

Luckily, I got to Warsaw on time and there, I really enjoyed waiting at the modern airport terminal. and unlike Gdansk and Poznan, Warsaw had a few EURO signs.

I have a feeling Spain will get Group B and Spanish fans will be happy in Gdansk. Send the Dutch to Kharkiv.

Let the draw begins!