Football

Today I went to my very first professional soccer game. The Nyíregyháza Spartacus were playing against the team from Debrecen. Apparently this match was an important one and, although it has been explained to me many times, I have no idea why it was important. I was surprised to find out that the tickets were only 500 Forint, or just under 3 dollars Canadian.

The Debrecen fans had to sit in a different section from the Nyíregyháza fans because the two sides love to get into massive brawls. Within the first 10 minutes of the match, the Debrecen fans tried to break open the gate that separated the two sides. It was really funny to watch how involved a lot of the older guys got in in the game. Being at a football match seems to give you license to be as crude as you want and I think I learned about 37 new swear words.

My favorite moment of the match was when the rowdy section of the Nyíregyháza cheering squad lit the colored torches and smoke bombs they had brought with them and then proceeded to accidentally light their banners on fire. I also really loved hearing all of the different cheers being sung by all of the fans. It was really neat to actually partake in the chanting that I had only ever before seen on TV.

The match anti-climactically ended in a 1-1 tie.