Headley's Blog
My blue (and black) heaven
Published by Simon Head on May 20, 2009
I’m writing this blog in the middle of a fantastic week. This coming weekend, a Bank Holiday weekend no-less, features not only the Playoff Finals for the Championship and League One, but a rather important League Two Final featuring our very own Gillingham FC. You may even have heard about it yourselves.
On Saturday around 38,000 Gills fans will descend on Wembley for one of the biggest occasions in the club’s history. Thanks to a very understanding family on my wife’s side, I’ll be missing my brother-in-law’s wedding to be there at Wembley to see the match. I know the Gills fans will give it everything, and I know the players will too. I can’t wait.
But my week and a bit of football heaven started this past weekend, thanks to my friend Mike. His 40th birthday is looming, and to celebrate (or to forget, I’ll have to check that with him) half a dozen of us set off for Milan in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Reliably informed by one of our number that we should expect “rain, followed by heavy rain,” we arrived suitably kitted out for what would undoubtedly be a wet, breezy weekend of Italian weather.
What actually happened was we stepped off the plane into bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-to-high twenties. The whole weekend was absolutely beautiful.
Saturday was largely spent mooching around the city, drinking expensive (but very good) coffee, more expensive (but still good) Italian beer and extortionately expensive (bog-standard) Coca Cola (a shade under a fiver for one glassful at one cafe), but the fun really started that night.
After a hearty meal, we repaired to a bar for a few alfresco beers, only to be met by a sea of humanity, bedecked in the colours of Inter Milan. Udinese’s 2-1 win over Inter’s rivals AC Milan meant the Nerazzurri had secured their 17th Scudetto (the name for the Serie A title) without even kicking a ball that day. Half the city had hit the streets and were tooting their horns, singing at the top of their lungs and waving enormous flags from their cars or Vespas. It was like Mardi Gras in blue and black. It was amazing to see, and it gave us just a taste of what to expect at the San Siro the following night, because although it was madness on the streets on Saturday night, it was calmness personified compared to Sunday night at the San Siro.
We got off the Metro at Lotto station and walked the 20-minute stroll to the famous stadium amid scenes very similar to those we experienced the night before. After getting to the ground and doing a full lap trying to find our designated turnstile, we finally made it inside, and after a LOT of stairs, we made it to the middle tier and we entered the arena for the first time.
Those who have been to football stadiums around the world will know that, by comparison, English stadiums can be rather tame. For example, if you wanted to walk down the stairs of the Rainham End or Medway Stand, you’d be able to do so reasonably easily. At the San Siro, you take your life in your own hands every time you move. I’ve never been in a stand so steep in my life, and negotiating the stairs, slaloming between the various Inter fans who were sitting on the steps at the time, was bloody scary!
The San Siro holds around 80,000, and with only a tiny number of travelling Siena fans in the ground, the crowd was probably nearer the 78,000 mark. I’ve been to some big stadiums in my time, and I’ve been to stadiums with incredible atmospheres before. But Sunday at the San Siro knocked everything else into a cocked hat. It was an experience I’ll never forget.
The singing was almost constant, and, unlike most grounds in England, EVERYBODY sings. It was a real pity that none of us knew what the Nerazzurri fans were singing, as we all wanted to join in. The best thing we could do was sing the same tune with our own words. So I hastily invented a couple of new chants to fit, including the Saveloy song – which isn’t a million miles different from the old Gills’ Celery song – and the Jumping up and down and say OLE! OLE! song. There was also a song, called Pazzi Inter, which on first listen sounded like a bad Eurovision entry, but turned out to be the club’s official song, which was recently re-recorded with some of the Inter players themselves singing parts of the song. They played Pazzi Inter before the match and about three times at fulltime and the fans all sang as one. It was absolutely awesome.
As for the match itself, it was a cracker. The first 20 minutes or so were standard Serie A fare, with both sides lining up with two banks of four, daring each other to try and break them down. But both sides gradually started to commit more players to attack and the deadlock was finally broken a minute before halftime. Argentine midfielder Esteban Cambiasso slammed home the rebound after the Siena keeper failed to hold a good shot from the edge of the area. The stadium erupted and the party started in earnest.
In the second half Siena came out and had a real go. The visitors hit the woodwork three times, tested Inter keeper Julio Cesar twice and missed the target with two more golden opportunities. By contrast, Inter broke clear twice and scored twice. That’s the difference. While Siena worked hard, but couldn’t finish, Inter were clinical.
The second goal, scored midway through the second half, was a brilliant breakaway move. “Super Mario” Balotelli broke the Siena offside trap and put the keeper on his backside before nonchalantly toe-poking the ball into the net from a tight angle. Based on that performance I’m sure he’s going to be a star for Italy in the next few years. He works hard, has speed to burn and can finish, all the hallmarks of a great Italian striker.
You wouldn’t necessarily say his strike partner, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, possessed all those qualities, however. To put it bluntly the guy’s the laziest footballer I’ve ever seen play live. But give him the ball and he’s also one of the best. Technically “Ibra” has got the lot. It’s just that little bit in between his ears that’s stopping him becoming one of the very best players in the world. If he wants it he can be every bit as good, if not better, than Fernando Torres, who is generally considered the best centre-forward on the planet. The Jekyll & Hyde nature of Ibrahimovic was clear to see throughout the match, but the Nerazzurri love him, and when he smashed in the third with around a quarter of an hour to go, the crowd lapped it up.
After the match we were treated to an enormous firework display, flares were lit among the Ultras behind the goal to our left and the whole stadium sang non-stop for 20 minutes. It was breathtaking.
In terms of sheer atmosphere, it’s streets ahead of anything I’ve experienced before. I’ve been to a La Liga match in Spain, I’ve attended European Championship matches, I’ve been to a World Cup quarter final and I’ve seen countless matches in England, including watching my own team play finals at Wembley, but the San Siro celebrating Inter’s Scudetto tops the lot.
Simon Head
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