VS Thu 19 October 2017 Rajko Mitić Stadium (aka “Marakana”) USA TV: FS2 1pm ET Coming off our trip to Watford... surely one of our more clueless, spineless efforts in a while, it would be normal to feel a little anxiety. In fact, many of our “fans” are probably salivating for this one, poised with their incendiary prose. While their fans (and players) should also be salivating, especially if they watched our last game. It didn’t help to ease my mind, when my daughter was just studying (and reminding me of) the Srebrenica genocide, committed by a guy named Ratko Mladić 20 years ago, with his friendly Serbian colleagues. And then you look up their team on Google and find plenty of this... If that pic wasn’t photoshopped, let’s just say our lads might be a little bit challenged to man up in that environment. Sure ain’t no Vicarage Road! They may call it "Marakana" but it doesn't much look like a good place to play the beautiful game. So all signs point to a very short reign by yours truly the matchday thread starter. p.s. reverse-jinx psychology anyone? p.p.s. coyg!
Since you brought up Srebrenica and Mladic, interesting factoids about Red Star Belgrade: one of the most notorious paramilitary groups in the 1990s Balkan Wars was founded by Arkan, the leader of Red Star's ultras. Most of this paramilitary group's soldiers were themselves ultras from the Red Star terraces. This paramilitary wing was founded in 1990 after a particularly bad riot in Zagreb against Dinamo fans, in one of the flare-ups that was a precursor to the war. They were also rumored to have taken part in the genocide at Srebrenica, among other atrocities. After the war, they mostly blended back into their previous life of football hooliganism. It's one of the worst environments in which to play, along with Zagreb. However, my general pessimism for this match is mostly independent of the Serbian homefield advantage. We mostly just suck.
It seems like Eastern European football fans and during-match pyro/flare use are quite hand-in-hand, I also noticed it a couple of years ago in UCL action when Galatasaray fans literally tore shit up in the away supporters section at The Emirates (including destroying multiple rows of seating) and lit up more than a few flares including one or two that literally landed on the pitch, definitely a safety hazard for both the fans and for the players whom they were intending to wreak havoc on.
Also, I highly recommend this show Viceland did on "The Eternal Derby" between Partizan and Red Star. Sadly there are no subtitles for the one Serbian guy...
So much for all-seaters keeping hooliganism at bay. I tried really hard to place the last stadium in that video, the one where the police moved in. Clearly not their Marakana. But even with the various visual clues, I just could not figure it out. Then I realized it was Serbian... and an indoor arena! So it's their hoops fans ripping up their own house perhaps? During my research I noticed that they haven't qualified for UEFA/Europa for 10 years. And so far in this year's group stage, they've drawn BATE at home, and beat Koln away. So their team and their fans are going to be ultra motivated (haha) to take our scalp. So, I wonder if AFC goals for tomorrow should be... #1 Get in and out of there, intact and alive! #2 Get a point? This match is making me more nervous the more I think about it.
Watching those videos of the bad ass Red Star and Parizan ultras ....... While thinking of Portis putting Mirotic in the hospital yesterday with one punch.
So I guess I should set the dvr to record an extra 3 hours in case the game doesn’t kick off on time?
I think a point would be a decent result. Didn't we lose to Dinamo in Zagreb a couple years back? And FWIW over the past five years or so Croatian hooligans (Dinamo, Hajduk Split, Croatia NT) have been much more prominently poorly behaved than Serbs. Whether that's because Serbian teams/hooligans have been suppressed more effectively than Croats I dunno
Oh no set it for an additional 3 hours especially when it “kicks off” on time. Wait people still have DVRs??? Talk about legacy device. I remember having my parents record the 1999 CL finale on the VCR and then watching it the next day, not knowing the results. The look on Lothar’s face at fhe end. Clearly that moment he knew his 86 year old body would have a date with destiny . Who knew it would be the “NY/NJ MetroStars” ? ?????
I know I started this whole discussion about the intimidating Serbs, but how about some football discussion? No team news yet that I know of, but I did see Coquellin in yesterday's training photos. I wonder if he might figure?? It wouldn't be bad to take a break from Xhaka. And Francis is definitely one who doesn't tend to take sh1t from the opposition.
I mean I would normally utter the word "interesting" regarding this development but at this point, nothing surprises me anymore.
Yeah, saw him in the training photos too. But I said to myself "nah!" On reflection, I'm all for it. If it's going to be a little war there in Belgrade, why not sacrifice someone who's more expendable. Sorry Matthieu.
This isn't Serbia per se, but I met one of the guys who prosecuted Radovan Karadzic a couple of weeks ago. That's a rough line of work to me in (war crimes prosecutors, that is).
Crazy atmosphere there, but so far just noise not voilence. Maybe more intense than a Turkish crowd. Impressive. And we have a very youthful squad... look at our bench!! What an educational experience for our boys. Close, interesting match so far. We obviously were going for it from the off. Hoping to quiet the crowd I suppose. No luck with that so far!
Walcott goes down in a heap and stays down. Not looking so good for him. But he's up again, so we'll see. p.s. Reiss Nelson so far with 2 game-saving defensive plays. And he's playing attacking mid? Impressive
0-0 with 1 min to go in 1T. The fans are whistling. Tells you that they'd be happy with a draw. Not sure their players would agree.