Whitecapsfanblog

Yes, again in Paris…  This time I took my wife on our trip to Europe in fall of 2004.   I had no idea there was going to be a Champions League game in Paris but I soon discovered this when we went to the PSG shop on the Champs Elysees.  I was thrilled, a chance to see Mourinho’s Chelsea in their pomp.   It was the opening round of the group phase of the Champs League.  

We took the Metro to the closest stop to Parc Des Princes and walked with the crowd to the stadium.  I must say there was a frightening mood in the crowd and I was very glad to get inside the stadium to the relative security of our seat.   The stadium was packed and pumped to see Chelsea play.  The PSG ultras put on a great show and make tremendous noise.  I must say that I have become a fan of PSG having seen them play at home a number of times.  Part of the reason the crowd was was pumped up was that Didier Drogba had just joined Chelsea in the off season.  Drogba played for PSG’s most hated rival- Olympique Marseilles.   PSG fans hate Drogba with a passion.

This game showed the vast difference between the French and English leagues.  In spite of playing away from home in front of a hostile crowd,  Chelsea dominated the match from the start and PSG did not stand a chance.  PSG could hardly put more than two passes together before they lost possession.   They rarely threatened Chelsea’s goal.   

John Terry scored first in the first half off of a corner after the PSG keeper misjudged the cross.  

Didier Drogba was the story of the match.  He scored two goals and rubbed it in with the crowd who responded with ferocious boos and whistles.  I am a great fan of his because he is a monster and every defender’s nightmare.  He is strong, big and fearless.  He is a great finisher.  He has even mastered the art of diving…

Chelsea played with tremendous confidence, the kind of confidence Mourinho’s sides all play with.  He is a master manager,  and it was fantastic to see one of his teams play. 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=161860&cc=5901

I travelled on an overnight train from Barcelona to Torino in September of 2000.  I got off at the wrong stop at the smaller train station at about 5:30 AM and had to walk to the tourist enter to try to get a room for the next night.  The center didn’t open until 9 am so I had a sleep on a bench out front.  

The tourist center sent me to a place near the big train station.  It was not a particularly nice neighbourhood, but the room was clean and cheap.  I had not eaten since the previous evening so I was famished and went out in search of food. I found a nice deli and ordered some absolutely gorgeous food and found a local newspaper.  It was Saturday and I had thought that I was going to see a division 2 clash between Torino and Venizia the next day, but it tuned out that it was in fact a Coppa Italia match between Torino and…AC Milan!!! My heart leaped.  I had not thought that I was going to see one of the biggest clubs in world football.  I asked the proprietor of the deli to tell me where to get a ticket.  Very kindly she walked me around to a place called “Solo Toro” a fan shop which sold Toro gear and souvenirs.  It was run by a depressed looking couple who told me just to go to the stadium and buy a ticket there.  I foolishly thought that a match with AC Milan would be sold out.  

The Coppa Italia has the status of the League Cup in England.  Non one takes it that seriously and the big teams play their second teams in the early rounds and don’t take it seriously until they are in the quarters.   Mind you, AC Milan, like all of the world’s big teams, has one hell of a second team.  On the night Oliver Bierhoff started up front and World Cup starter for Brazil Leonardo also played.   

Torino is one of World Football’s tragic clubs.  It was the undisputed best team in all of italy and won four or five Italian championships in the late 1940’s.  A plane carrying all but one of the Toro players crashed in the fog in a tragedy more nasty than Manchster United’s Munich disaster in 1958.   Torino did not win another Italian championship until 1976, and have not won another. They have had success in the Coppa Italia, but not on this night. 

Toro used to play at their ground Filadelfia, but moved to the stadio Communale and then Stadio Dell Alpe which they shared with Juventus.  It has to be one of the worst places to watch a football match.  It has the deadly running track and then some separating the fans from the intensity of the action on the pitch.   I could not believe how far away I was from the field of play.  I soon realised how foolish I was in trying to buy a ticket earlier, becasue there were no more than 10, 000 in a stadium that can hold 70,000.  The majority of the Fans were crowded behind one goal.  AC Milan had some travelling support who were well organized and vocal.  

A fellow called Guly scored two long range crackers for AC Milan either side of halftime.  They were superb low shots which hit the corner of the net from 25 to 30 yards out.  Bierhoff scored, but Toro pulled one back late through a little guy called Pinga. AC Milan put the match away with the latter Guly wonder strike strike at the end of the match.   

It was an odd experience sitting in this vast stadium with so few people present after sitting with 90,000 or so for the Champions league match in Barcelona, and I am glad that Torino now play in the smaller Olympic Stadium instead of the Del Alpe (which  Juventus are in the process of renovating to better suit footy viewing). 

Toro are now back up in Serie A and I hope they manage to claw their way back up to the top end of the table.  Go TORO!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torino_F.C.

http://www.archiviotoro.it/a/archivio/archivio/0001/c6.asp

What was remarkable about this match was that I got to see Ronaldinho play for PSG.   He pulled out many a trick from his bag, but not to any great effect.  Bastia is just a little team from the island of Corsica, yet the sleeping giant PSG could not break them down.   It was really a victory for the little band of traveling fans from Corsica, who celebrated with the Bastia coach after the match.  Bastia went ahead through Lillian Laslandes, that great french striker I had seen a few years earlier for Bordeaux.   He scored a true poacher’s goal in close.  

PSG, coached by French world cup legend Luis Fernandes, eventually equalized after sustained pressure in the second half.  The crowd was very frustrated up to that point, especially with PSG’s habit of playing the ball backwards rather than forwards. 

Ronaldinho hit the bar early with a cheeky chip, but his influence waned as the match went on.  He was a bit of a showboat, and Barcelona really harnessed his power in the next few years to make him fit within a team.  

It was quite a good match with lots of close calls and a superb performance by Bastia’s goalkeeper.  There was even a fracas at the end of the match as the players mouthed off at each other when they were leaving the pitch…