Chronicles of a 2007/09 Season Ticket Holder

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Probably, but sneaking on there would be pretty tough. Not sure who all those fools are hanging around back there, but I'm envious!

I'm also envious of the cop I met recently who told me he met a lot of the Napoli players when being part of their security detail. Wonder if I can get an autograph out of him.

Yeah, even when the stadium is sold out that section is virtually empty. Not sure if any seats are actually sold there, or if it is just open and whoever can go there, except no one does cos you can't see anything. Sounds like an enquiry to make next home game.

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

First home game of the second leg of the season, and it's time for a return to our origins. Time to go back and focus on the superstitious rituals which characterized the first half of the season before in some cases being abandoned. The jeans. The shoes. And the sox. And yes, the Samoa Rugby Union shirt with number 10 is making a comeback, after being thrown to the lions in our first game of the year (the Milan-Napoli of the countless rum shots). The Napoli jacket. Ate my pasta, glass of vino, off to Armando's.

But the lineup isn't complete, because just like Napoli made some new signings, so did I. The Lavezzi scarf is going to feature for only the second time. The Slovakia flag is finally making its debut. And Anna had purchased Donatella a new lucky horn, with a blue Napoli donkey on it. And Mannini thought he was the only new active aspect to this Napoli when the game kicked off at 8:30pm.

Armando wasn't actually home. He had called me earlier to notify me that Attilio's team was playing at 6pm, and they would be making it to the stadium only as the game kicked off. "Meet Anna in front of my house at 7:15pm and they will give you a ride, then we'll all ride back together." So I'm about to get on the Tangenziale in Arco Felice, and already a problem emerges. The electronic board informed us that the Fuorigrotta exit was backed up. Argh! Oh well, I left my house early enough, didn't I?

Well, I didn't feel comfortable about it, and the Fuorigrotta exit is a pain in the ass anyway. But where else can I go? The possibilities played out in my head. Vomero exit. Hmmm. Yeah, but I don't really know well enough how to work my way down to Armando's from there. I can sort of (hopefully) make it to Donatella's, and from there I should be able to figure out how to get to Armando's, but I've never done it before so who knows. Damn it. Forget it, I'll just sit in traffic in Fuorigrotta.

No, ******** that. Agnano exit!!! Yes!!! I can get off at Agnano (like when I go to work...), and work my way up to Armando's by going the back way, taking the road up the hill to Pianura and working my way down. Yes, that's what I'll do. And the traffic I encountered heading towards the stadium from Agnano only confirmed the wisdom of my choice. But how did I know about this back way?

It was a day way back in October 2006. I had just arrived in Naples, and was only driving my new car, a 2005 Renault Clio, for at most a couple of weeks. So one day my hazard lights decided they wanted to stay on. Off I go to the dealership where I bought it. "It's a factory defect. There was a recall. You need to take it directly to the Renault dealership." I go to Renault. "We can see you in 3 weeks." "But my hazards are stuck on. What do I do until then?" "We can see you in 3 weeks.

Bitches.

So I go back to my dealership, and they tell me to go to this one place in Pianura, as they may have the part I need. They explain the route to me. "Go back towards the Agnano exit, but keep going. Go all the way up the hill, follow the road until you can make a right, and then you are there."

Little did I know that 15 months later those words would make my life a lot easier (though they did little to help me at the time, as the dealership in Pianura didn't have the part either). And depending on how tonight would go, I may decide to take this route permanently...

Anna's husband Pasquale drops us off, and Anna, Sergio and I walk towards the San Paolo. I am carrying the Slovakia flag, and at one point decide to open it up and drape it over my shoulder. The first time I realize it was dragging on the ground. The second time, having just passed the first checkpoint, I realize that the flag was gone. ********!! I turn around and some guy was folding it up, and handed it to me. Whew. So the weather sucks. The Fuorigrotta exit forced me to take a detour. Now the flag was almost lost before it even made its first appearance. I dunno. These might be bad omens.

We enter with little difficulty, and as soon as we reach the Tribuna, we see this guy dressed up in a full Napoli outfit with Zalayeta's name and number on the back. So far, nothing too unusual, except that the guy had painted his entire body black to look like Zalayeta!! And he was hanging out with a guy we had seen a while back, trying to look like Lavezzi with the long hair wig (which of course was blue like our shirt...). "Guys, can I get a picture of you??"



Donatella was the only person already in the stands when we got there. As it turns out, Annalisa wouldn't be making it. Her hurt foot (see previous game entry) was doing better, but she had missed a bit of work because of it and needed to go back to work in her family's restaurant. I had tried calling her earlier but no answer. So unfortunately, the Slovakia flag would make its debut without her, she who had masterminded the flag's birth in the first place. Not only that, but she is supposed to provide the mast to fly it with, so I would be stuck holding the flag or draping it over my shoulders.

Luckily, there were some other absences so I wouldn't have to sit alone and could instead sit with the main group. Coincidentally, Gigi and his son were not going to make it. You may recall how our fortunes changed against Lazio once I occupied Gigi's seat...

Before kickoff, the Curva A erected a couple of different banners. The first targeted Cagliari's president, who was caught on camera saying "bastardi napoletani!" during Cagliari's second goal against us last week. Can't remember the exact wording of the banner, but something to the effect of him needing to have cancer...the second banner, or set of banners, was much better. "2007-2008. Neither the dream of a cup, nor a suffered salvation. For us, the only thing that counts is a sweaty shirt! Forza ragazzi!" Forget what the objectives are. The only thing that counts is maximum effort. A sweaty jersey. Come what may.

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

So Napoli hadn't won in 7 games, but you would never tell from the atmosphere at the stadium. The Curva B was particulary vocal, but maybe it's just that they are closest to us. But a trend that would continue regardless is that of visiting teams wearing atrocious away kits. Udinese showed up with some funky all-black outfit with gold names and numbers. "They always save those for us!!!" Donatella exclaimed. And she's right. Hell, I don't even know the last time we saw a team with a proper kit at San Paolo. Maybe it was Reggina in November.

Anna gave Donatella the lucky horn, and she showed it off to all of us. But the horn's debut would not take place tonight. "Donatella, you can't just break out a new horn! The horn needs to do it's time!" Donatella's original lucky horn was with her when the Napoli basketball team won the Coppa Italia in Forli' in 2006. It didn't help our cause against Milan when she brought it to my house, but in her mind, that defeat took nothing away from the horn's virtuous power. And her new horn would stay wrapped up in her pocket, waiting for its turn to shine.

As each person rolled in, everyone asked the same question. "Where is Armando?" "Attilio had a game at 6, they will be here later." We all thought Armando was just being overly optimistic - in typical Armando fashion - when he boasted "we'll just make it right before kickoff," but sure enough, Attilio comes crawling past me to his spot just seconds before kickoff!

The final moments before kickoff:
[youtube]0GpdkvxOvIA[/youtube]

As the teams came on, we held up the Slovakia flag as high as we could, hoping to catch Hamsik's attention, but alas, he would not see us. We would try again...

Napoli starts off strong, and first Zalayeta hits a crossbar and then Contini heads just over. Soon, Lavezzi would center from the right and it appeared that an Udinese defender would slide it in his own goal. "Goooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!" Somehow the announcer gave Zalayeta credit, but who cared. We were up 1-0 with the game barely underway!

"Gigi just lost his seat forever..." I turned back to Fabio to remind him about the Lazio "substitution," and half-seriously thought about informing Gigi next home game that he new seat was up in row 24...that is if he wanted to see Napoli win.

Then, a lightning strike from out of nowhere. The much raved-about Udinese attack lived up to expectations, and Pepe fired a brilliant volley past a hapless Gianello. Even Donatella, who typically never accepts that a call against us was good, or much less that a non-call favoring an opponent was good, recognized the brilliance of the goal and didn't complain at all.

Pepe's goal greatly subdued the entire stadium. Suddenly, it was a very different game. Napoli had started off strong, scored early, and the crowd was very vocal. From one moment to the next, the game became an uphill struggle, and the crowd was that much less demonstrative of its support. Maybe sitting in Gigi's seat didn't bring that much luck after all.

From that point on, it was easy to find faults with everything. And when Cannavaro was red-carded a little later, our fate appeared to be sealed. It was a foul. It wasn't a foul. It was Grava's foul. The TV shows that Cannavaro never touched Pepe. The radio said he did. I kept thinking back to the 0-5 in Udine for consolation, since there was no way we were getting another 3 points against these guys...

The ref got his usual ration of insults, this time perhaps more deservedly so, and when he ended the first half right after Napoli had earned a corner kick, the insults just kept coming.

At halftime, we had some casatiello brought to us by Daniela's parents (the same Daniela who had the idea of doing the rum shots during the Milan game). Washed it down with some Borghetti, but didn't feel much better about the second half.

Right before the second half started, I again broke out the Slovakia flag in an effort to get Hamsik's attention. At a U2 show in DC a couple of years ago, I managed to get the Edge's attention with an Ireland scarf. Apparently Hamsik either doesn't see as well, or doesn't bother lifting his head up high enough to see as far up as row 18 of the Tribuna Nisida. The flag was not wasted, however, and Anna, Donatella and Attilio, suffering from the chilly, humid evening, decided to use it as a blanket from that point on.



One thing that had amused me up until that point was the universal confusion expressed by everyone around me. "What flag is that??" everyone kept asking me. "Slovakia, for Hamsik." Not sure how much luck it's gonna bring us, but at least it's helping me give a little geography lesson to everyone.

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

The game continued to go poorly. Every missed pass saw our player who had screwed up get subjected with insults. Hamsik fired a pass for Garics on the right. The ball had come just behind Garics, who struggled to turn and keep it in play before the ball rolled out, as it could have done little else. "Uccidetelo!!!! Kill him!!!!" someone shouted. He was not alone.

"It's not his fault! He received a bad pass! People don't understand shit on these stands!!!" Fabio blurted out. Me and the guy next to me couldn't help but laugh. Not sure who this guy is, but earlier he had prompted me to take out the flag the second time. "Last time you took the flag out, we scored!"

Then, from one second to the next, the game turned. I don't even know what minute of the game it was. Still don't know. But Lavezzi dribbled around outside Udinese's box, and was given plenty of time and space to shoot. And shoot he would.

"Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!" His only goal at San Paolo to date was against Reggina in November. Too little. I pumped by Lavezzi scarf in the air briefly, observed the mass hysteria that broke out around me, and decided quickly to capture it on film. I thought I had filmed a good few seconds of everyone embracing, jumping and shouting, but as it turns out, I basically didn't get anything. Yeah, my camera sucks. It's not my fault that I didn't press the button hard enough the first time or whatever. Nope. It's the camera. And on the topic of flags, Donatella broke out an Argentina flag she was carrying in her backpack.

Barely time to regain our composure and Lavezzi found himself in front of goal, chipping the ball over the Udinese keeper and into an empty net. He ran directly towards me with his arms spread out like an airplane's wings, and dove to the ground. I pumped the scarf that much more emphatically into the night sky, screaming (though still not as loud as for Hamsik's second goal against Lazio). Again, I decided to film the scene around me but again came up short. I handed the camera to Donatella (again, thinking it was filming the whole time) so she could get a shot of me with the Lavezzi scarf. Luckily she had the good sense to assume the film wasn't shooting and clicked to get it started, so she caught a whole 3 seconds of me with the scarf. Or rather, she thought she was taking a picture and clicked the button a couple of times, which explains why the video came out so short. But the first frame of the video is priceless, and is featured here:



From that point on, we were able to relax and think about how we managed to score 8 goals against these guys in 2 games. The poor Udinese fans who had come down from Udine for the game would have a long journey back. I almost felt the need to console them.

The Curva B broke out all its scarves, and the Tribuna Nisida quickly followed suit. My Lavezzi scarf joined them until Donatella yelled out "Randy, this is something you need to get a picture of!"



At one point, the chant of "ole'!" accompanied every pass. Even the players on the field were having fun. And Mannini, Santacroce (who had come on to replace Garics) and Pazienza (who replaced Hamsik) must have been thinking about how wise a choice it was to come to Napoli. But the joy of the moment did not make us lose focus on our real problems.

"What a bastard! He is even lucky!!" Anna expressing all her anger at Reja, whose position would now be a little safer thanks to the result. Had it gone against us, at least his poor coaching would have been exposed that much more and who knows, maybe he would have been looking for a job tomorrow. and I'm making hers the Quote of the Week.

Ironically, shortly after Anna's exclamation, I looked over and saw the empty seats to my right, left empty by the people who had left early in an effort to beat the rush. The seats were covered with the doomsday papers they hand out outside the stadium before the game. The ones I complained about in another post, with how all they can do is criticize (sure enough, this week they were criticizing our "modest" January transfer market). The headline on one article was priceless: "Dear Reja, your luck has run out."

Somehow, none of us ever saw the 4th official flash up the amount of injury time, and I for one kept thinking the worst. I can see it now. 3-2, and suddenly our win is that much more jeapordized. And to think that I didn't even watch the Cagliari-Napoli fiasco the week before. But when the ref blew the final whistle, all my worst fears were archived. We had almost forgotten how good it felt to win a game. Last time was 2 months ago against Parma.

"Randy, from now on, the flag is at every game."

"Of course!"

"No, but it has to be with us. We need to wear it like we did in the second half!"

"No way! The flag belongs to me and Annalisa! You can't leave us up there without the flag! It was our idea!"

"I don't wanna hear anything! It must be so!"

So Annalisa and I are gonna have to fight the superstitious Donatella for the flag, but if the results keep going this way, I may not put up much of a fight after all...

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Ahhh OK! So Annalisa and I can have the flag during the first half, and you have it during the second half. That's a good compromise.

Welcome to BigSoccer!!

(See guys, I'm not making these stories up...)

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

Yes, and Navarro...who is just Navarro. Or we could say "he who comes from Navarra."

"In goal for Napoli with the number 1, Nicolas He Who Comes from Navarra!! Oleeeee'!!!!"

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

I really do want to make something of this...Donatella, any ideas on how to make this happen?

 

Re: Chronicles of a 2007/08 Season Ticket Holder

A book would be a good idea...kind of a short book so far though, no? Plus the videos wouldn't be in there...

Again, we aren't making this up, folks.



My mom (not pictured) was also wearing a Napoli shirt...

Every so often a post like this comes along and reminds you of why life is such a wonderful thing.