Are You Ready for Some Futbol?

A couple of weekends ago, Anne and Mark made the trip across town (actually, about 5 blocks) to the local soccer stadium.  It is a fairly short walk from their apartment and they can actually see some of the grandstand seats from their living room window.

When they arrived at the stadium and took their seats, Anne and Mark realized that they could see their apartment.

Casa de Anne y Mark is just beyond that tree in the middle.

Almost from the opening tip, Anne and Mark had some issues with this event.  First off, the language barrier.  For some reason, on this side of the pond they refer to soccer as "futbol."  Must be part of the metric conversion or something.  But they do not likewise refer to the NFL as a soccer league.  They call it "American Football."  Crazy Europeans.  Where do they come up with this stuff?  In any event, there were a few other lessons to be learned.  Anne and Mark made it to the game match.  It was a beautiful day out on the field pitch and there were a fair number of local fans supporters.

Aside from not speaking the language of soccer futbol, Anne and Mark were in trouble because they did not know which team side they were going to cheer for support.  Eventually, they decided on the green team side, for multiple reasons - none of them related to soccer futbol.

Reason #1: The photo above was taken during the pre-game match festivities.  Anne and Mark spent a little time looking around and scoping out the crowd.  Then they noticed the sign written in green that reads "Cannibals."  Word to the wise - if there are two groups of people and one of them self-identifies as cannibals and the other one does not, and you have to choose which one to be a part of - ALWAYS JOIN THE CANNIBALS.  always.

Reason #2: There was evidence that the green team was called "Pirin" and the mountains around Blagoevgrad are called the Pirin Mountains.  Anne and Mark put 2 and 2 together and reached 22.

Reason #3: Anne bought a scarf containing the logo and colors of the green team side.

So, having established their strong loyalties to the Green Pirin Cannibals, Anne and Mark sat back to watch some exciting soccer action.  Anne and Mark were informed that Pirin is somewhat equivalent to a minor league team.  So this match was the equivalent of a minor league game.  As such, Anne and Mark had somewhat lower expectations regarding the quality of play.  What they did not expect is that apparently, the minor leagues are especially thuggish.  Large stretches of this game involved players running into each other, often for the purpose of gaining an advantage, but sometimes probably just because they were a bit clumsy.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

You may have heard unconfirmed reports that Mark may have dozed off in the stands during the match.  Anne claims to have witnessed this event.  Mark is less sure.  Mark admits it is possible.  He specifically remembers that the game was tied at 0-0 (that's zero-zero nil-nil to you non-sports fans).  And then later, he re-gained consciousness and felt like a great deal of time had passed.  But then he looked up to the scoreboard.  0-0.  Apparently, either no time had passed or Mark had missed nothing.  You be the judge.

Eventually, however, someone scored a run touchdown whatever.  Then another and another.  By the end of the whole thing, it was a three-nil blowout.  Root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame.  Or something equivalent and more suited for soccer futbol.

I bet it goes in.  Eat em up, Cannibals!