Chronicles of a 2007/09 Season Ticket Holder

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Well, it's been an interesting 2008 so far. Not quite what we expected perhaps, but then again just more of the same.

Before getting into yesterday's ordeal at the San Paolo, a quick summary of preceding games. So about 10 people came to my house to watch Milan-Napoli. Here I was, optimistic as hell about the game, Pato or no Pato. Here I was wanting to take life head on, grabbing it by the horns instead of adapting to the circumstances it throws at you. What better way then to kick the year off by making a big festivity of Milan-Napoli, knowing full well that if things went south, no one would ever want to watch a game at my house again? Neapolitans and their superstitions...I was laying my reputation on the line, and in a big way. I even went as far as wearing the same clothes I always wore at the San Paolo...debuted a Napoli cap my cousin gave me...Donatella's horn...all the good omens were there.

So my friend Daniela came up with a cool idea to make things interesting. "We should do a rum shot for every goal they score, regardless of who it is. If we score, it's to celebrate. If Milan scores, it's to numb the pain." Great idea!

"Man, what if this game ends up like Roma-Napoli in October??" was Vittorio's pearl of wisdom.

"Damn, would that suck!"

Damn, did it suck.

When Milan scored the 5th to make it 5-2, Daniela and I had to surrender with honor. 6 rum shots are more than enough for anyone while watching a game...(plus we had red wine with dinner...Monday morning was a lot of fun). But at least we won a small victory in that we turned some other people on to our rum of choice, a 12-year-old El Dorado Demerara...

Overall, everyone left my house happy, save Donatella who as mentioned earlier is the most superstitious Neapolitan out there. "Never again at your house, Randy!" Luckily, her voice of dissent rang out alone, and should I decide to invite others at my house again...well what can I say, there will only be 9 of us next time.

Then the Coppa Italia game. Let's avenge the poor league performance with a win in the cup.

Yeah. So much for that. This time, Armando, Attilio and I met at Gaetano's house to watch the game, but apparently Gaetano's house doesn't bring much luck either. Or maybe it's just that Napoli is having a hard time of it these days...

So on to Napoli-Lazio 2: the Revenge. This game came at a time of great controversy, as suddenly the dreamy start to the season seemed to have been replaced by a rude wake-up call. But right about now is when every fan out there needs to look deep in his soul and determine if he thinks our season is going well or not. Do you believe we need to be in Europe, and are consequently disappointed at our recent slip in the standings? Do you believe the club's initially stated goal of finishing in the 9-11th spot is more realistic, and feel we are on track regardless? Are you just happy that we aren't battling for relegation? No need to answer the question in public. Just pick a side and make that your frame of reference for the remainder of the season.

The previous Saturday night we all met at a pub to bid farewell to Massimo, who is off to London tomorrow to seek greener pastures. Milan-Napoli again came up as a topic of conversation, and Massimo asked me "were you here for the cursed Napoli-Milan (of 1988, when Napoli lost at San Paolo 2-3 and was overtaken in the standings by Milan, who would go on to win the scudetto)? I was watching the game with a couple of friends of mine, and when Maradona scored, we went nuts. We embraced each other, jumped around, went crazy. Then at one point, we found ourselves covered in blood, and we couldn't figure out for the life of us who was bleeding!"

"That is awesome! You've gotta put that one on BigSoccer, Randy." Who am I to say no to Donatella?

So Sunday comes and since it was a new year, it's time for some changes. Apparently some of the good luck omens aren't working so well. Decided against the Samoa Rugby Union shirt, thinking it was somehow tainted by the 5 goals Milan put past us at my house, and went for something else instead. Thought about wearing the Napoli cap, but so far the cap has seen us get thrashed by Milan and get knocked out of the Cup by Lazio. The cap can stay at home today. The jury is still out on its effect...

I drive to Armando's house as usual, and notice immediately that the Fuorigrotta exit is pretty dead. It had been insanely packed Thursday night on my way to Gaetano's house. Weren't there only supposed to be 20,000 for the Coppa game?

Park right out front, go in, and have time to have a quick prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich with his daughter Diana visiting with her husband from France before we are off. This time, we made sure not to forget the Caffe' Borghetti. Had a glass of vino too, since drinking something alcoholic at Armando's before the game seems to bring good luck...

It was a Sunday of absences. Absences which could affect the course of the game. Our formation was not the same on this day, and there was cause for concern.

No, I'm not talking about Zalayeta and Gargano being out, as they were replaced by Sosa and Bogliacino. I'm talking about Annalisa, Donatella, and Anna. The female trio pictured in a post above. Our entire female contingent out.

Annalisa couldn't make it as she hurt her foot recently. She claims to have hurt her foot because of a curse laid upon her by a girl from Milan. So apparently Vittorio, her new boyfriend, dumped his ex-girlfriend, who seems to be from Milan, to get with Annalisa. Of course, as the Neapolitan logic goes, said ex-girlfriend put some sort of "evil eye" curse on Annalisa out of spite, and voila' the broken toe. "But the milanesi aren't supposed to be capable of these things!" A statement which provided no consolation to anyone, nor did it cause us to consider that perhaps it was just a coincidence.

Donatella was out due to a migraine headache she developed the night before, and Anna was out from being in...Milan. Can we shake this Milan curse, already?

It was wierd being there with all guys. It was kinda like if we had this big Sunday lunch planned, except all the women forget to show up, leaving all the guys sitting around looking clueless and waiting for someone else to figure out how to cook something. We were gonna go hungry this Sunday.

What the numerous absences in our lineup meant was that I would at least be able to watch the game with the rest of the crew, instead of occupying my usual place in row 24 of the Tribuna Nisida. And not only that, but I would have the honor of carrying the Caffe' Borghetti into the stadium, a task usually fulfilled by Anna.

And something which had been bugging me for a while was whether or not to get a scarf. I have countless Napoli scarves. Don't even know where they all are, or how many of them are around. But none of them belong to this season. No. A new scarf was in order, and there was only one that I wanted.

"I've been wanting to get a Lavezzi jersey all season, but the problem is that historically, every time I get a player jersey, Napoli ends up selling the dude." No no no, no Lavezzi jersey for me. The Council had spoken in a unanimous voice. But that didn't mean that I couldn't get a player's scarf...

El Pocho Gol. Lavezzi. Inafferrabile Napoletano.

Lavezzi. The Unstoppable Neapolitan. I've had my eye on that scarf all season, and finally it is mine. It had chosen me.

Donatella is usually the first to show up. With her out, Armando, Attilio, Sergio and I were in the very unusual position of being the first to occupy our section. So I sit next to Armando, clueless as to whose seat I was actually occupying and only with the vague notion that with two seats empty, one of them would be mine.

Fabio shows up, and we figure out that I'm sitting in his seat. This seems to bother him slightly, but I put his soul at ease. "Don't worry, for superstitious reasons you must occupy your seat." Napoli hasn't lost at San Paoli with Fabio present for about 4 years, incidentally...

By the time most people had shown up and the game was about to begin, I found myself next to Attilio one row below, in what is probably Donatella's seat. The seat next to mine was empty, and it apparently belonged to Gigi. "He'll show up soon enough."

The game barely begins, and Hamsik scores!!!!!! With Annalisa out, her and I agreed that the debut of the Slovakia flag would have to be postponed an additional game. "Just in time for the beginning of the second part of the season." Makes enough sense. But I'll be damned if I wasn't regretting our decision at that moment. I consoled myself with the obligatory text message to Annalisa: "Hamsiiik!!!"

The game continues, and for a while it was all Napoli. Gigi and his son finally show up. Gigi sits 2 seats to my right, gestures for me to move next to him so his son can sit next to Attilio and Sergio. There I am, in a Gigi family sandwich. And it just doesn't feel right. Soon enough, I would know why.

Hamsik proceeded to miss several scoring chances. "You're a piece of shit!!!!!" All of a sudden, our Golden Child was being soundly criticized by those around me, particularly Gigi's son who generally didn't have a lot of good to say about the team. Then the two Lazio goals. Ledesma's strike silenced us, while Pandev's goal brought out the expected level of anger. Pandev decided to celebrate the goal by running towards the corner flag under our sector. Apparently, Pandev didn't pay attention to Rosina's experience from the previous month, as Rosina had run to the same corner flag after scoring only to receive an onslaught of insults as a result.

"You're a gypsy!!!!!!!!!" was just about the nicest thing that was thrown at Pandev. You live and you learn.

If the Gigi family sandwich made me uncomfortable enough, seeing Lazio score 2 goals and Hamsik miss more than that after my seat change only confirmed my fears. I had to get the hell out of that seat. By how? Where would I go? To my regular seat up in row 24? It was probably taken by someone else by then. I could just leave, or walk away and maybe find an empty seat somewhere else. No, none of those ideas seemed very doable. But damn it, sitting there was killing me and I just knew that the sudden turn of events was entirely due to the seat change.

Halftime comes and we have the Borghetti. "So far we are the only team that played!!!" How could we be down? And it appeared to be true. While some of our individuals (particularly in defense) looked less than sharp, and while the numerous chances we created were poorly finished, it did seem that the scoreline was unjust.

Second hald, and Hamsik misses more chances, as do several other players. Occasionally, Lazio takes advantage of the pathetic display by our defenders. Ledesma had a free kick. The ball sailed effortlessly towards our goal. Iezzo seemed out of position. Sure enough, he was. Didn't even move as Ledesma's shot crashed off the post. We could very plausibly have been down 1-3 without even knowing why or even deserving such a punishing scoreline. Mauri even found a chance but was twice denied by Iezzo.

Rocchi came on, Tare off. Vignaroli came on, Pandev off. Now they have two fresh forwards out there, and we're struggling to get a decent shot off. Did a good job of getting countless crappy shots off. And poor Hamsik got more and more berated by the ungrateful fans.

At one point, we see a lot of commotion in the Tribuna Posillipo. All kinds of people standing, berating somebody, but who? A number of theories abounded:

- Their anger was directed at De Laurentiis. Seemed odd, but that's what someone said.
- It was directed at Reja. "Fuori! Fuori! Fuori!" the fans chanted. "Out! Out! Out!" More plausible, but they were clearly referring to someone in the stands among them.
- Some Lazio fans were identified and kicked out. "Kicking out someone just cos they're Lazio fans, that's real classy." Gigi's son with another dose of criticism, though this time much more deserved (assuming this circumstance was indeed what occurred).

As it turns out, the incident was sparked by someone who threw a water bottle at the field, aiming at Reja. The fans around him were having none of this, and proceeded to physically remove the "fan" from the stands before security even had a chance to intervene. When Juve fans did something similar earlier this year, it made the national media. Sure enough it gets ignored when the (positive) act is committed by Napoli fans...

Finally, I was thrown a lifeline. "Guys, we need to change seats!" Behind me, Fabio decided to swap out with someone next to him in an effort to change our luck. Yes!

"I wanna change seats too, damn it!"

"You wanna change with me?" Gigi caught on right away.

The second substition was made, and I look to my left to see that Gigi's son had swapped out with Attilio and Sergio. Surely things would have to change now.

But Napoli kept creating chances, and the finishing was usually just as poor. That much hadn't changed. At one point, there was a play that reminded me that Lavezzi is truly head and shoulders above anyone on this team (except maybe Hamsik), and served as a good metaphor for how he fits into this team: he was in midfield looking to create yet another chance. He loses the ball to De Silvestri, who runs forward on a counter attack. Lavezzi was having none of it. He ran back, slide tackled the ball away from him better than many defenders ever could, regained the ball, got up, and rushed forward, passing the ball to an open man. The play eventually resulted in Dalla Bona having a good shot at goal, but his left footer went just wide. Lavezzi was still in midfield, on his knees and his head low, either out of fatigue, exasperation, or both. Just how much work would he have to do alone to lift the team?

Armando pours us a second shot of Borghetti, and a drop gets spilled on my jacket. Would be kinda cool if it had spilled on my scarf I thought. ******** it. We're losing. The stain would forever remind me of that when looking at the scarf.

The dying minutes of the game became surreal. Many started leaving. I didn't even see how much injury time was added. I didn't even know or care if injury time had started yet, or if it was about to end. We were about to suffer an underserved home loss. Fabio's record would be shattered, and more importantly to me personally, the debut of my Lavezzi scarf would be forever marred by this result, heroic personal performance by the player notwithstanding.

Napoli turned the pressure on as much as possible in what certainly had to be the final minute. The ball gets played out directly below us, and Lavezzi rushed to take the throw in while Domizzi is busy arguing with the ref about a perceived non-call. "******** it, Domizzi, just ********ing play. You ain't gonna change the ref's mind." I didn't say it out loud, but I didn't have to. He heard me.

Lavezzi takes the throw, the ball sails through the Lazio penalty box, gets headed out by Ledesma...directly at Hamsik.

This is one of those moments where you can actually pause real life as if you had a Tivo for the thing. I grabbed the remote issued to me at birth and clicked the Pause button. So here is the ball, sailing right at Hamsik. We're down 2-1 at home, and don't deserve to lose. Hamsik, after scoring a great first goal, got berated by everyone for missing several other chances. I have a Slovakia flag to bring to the stadium in his honor. If he ********s up this chance, Annalisa and I will be hung with that flag next home game. He has got to put this one in. We don't deserve the loss, and he certainly doesn't deserve the criticism. Click.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!"

Fists clenched towards the sky, I screamed like never before for a goal at the San Paolo. Not even with any of the goals against Juve.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!"

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!"

I'm probably gonna lose my voice. ******** that, I want to lose my voice, and actively strove to make it happen. Marek rushed towards the Curva B with half the ballboys, photographers, and miscellaneous onlookers running towards him, and the world suddenly seemed like a much better place. Except the flag was still missing, but we would be able to wave it that much more proudly next home game.

"Per il Napoli, gol del numero 17, Mareeeeeeek....."

"HAAAAMSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Not sure if anyone else in the stadium screamed it, but my scream was enough for all of us for sure.

The game ends, and we're left there standing. Relieved. Incredulous. Happy. Whatever. We felt it all.

"See guys, my call was the key! Our triple substitution made the difference!" Coach Fabio boasting of his successful tactic. If only he could give Reja some pointers.

"Fabio, I was seriously worried about your record there!"

"That's right! Napoli hasn't lost at San Paolo with me present in what, 4 years? I don't even know the last time Napoli lost with me. I wasn't there for Napoli-Cagliari. I was also home for Napoli-Genoa, as we all were. The loss in Serie C against Chieti, I was out for that one, too. I don't even remember our last loss." That's the (very lengthy) Quote of the Week.

Someone teased Fabio that if he wants to keep his record intact, he needs to skip our next home game against Udinese. We beat them 5-0 in Udine, so they are out for revenge. They are in grand form, and we are apparently hurting. But I will know what fate awaits us by looking to see if his usual seat is occupied...

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

The wonderful Lavezzi scarf:

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Damn, I wish I would have known that Sunday!

Salernitana...that name brings back sad memories. Memories of a time when Salernitana was a rival. A feared rival. Salernitana. The dark days of Serie B and C.

I still remember a Napoli-Salernitana in Coppa Italia at San Paolo. 25 August 2002. 1-1, our goal came from a penalty kick converted by Sesa. Not Sosa, Sesa. Remember him? I have a video of that penalty, filmed with my roommate's digital videocamera. We were in Curva A. We all went nuts. Over a penalty kick scored in Coppa Italia against Salernitana. Another time, another place.

Those days seem so far away, and Salernitana is a team that has mercifully disappeared off our radar.

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

...just rewatched the video and sure enough, Vignaroli was in the starting lineup for Salernitana that day!

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Ack!! The atrocious striped jersey!

And if I'm not mistaken, Maradona scored his first goal in a Napoli shirt in a Coppa Italia game against Salernitana.

Or was it Arezzo? Crap, I'm getting my granata teams confused.

EDIT: It was definitely Arezzo.

[youtube]AM_aoqnkQKw[/youtube]

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Nope. I actually have a few good friends who are juventini...I try to convert them as best I can, though.

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Funny Saber story. Once, during a game, Saber apparently lost a contrast with an opponent and fell to the ground. A guy in the stands yelled out "Saber!!! Damn you and your ********ing Ramadan!! You gotta eat!!!"