“From the moment Slavia was drawn, the whole city lived on football,” said the coach of Venice, Tomáš Staněk. Let a huge visit be the proof. 3,585 spectators found their way to the stadium in a town of almost 8,000 people! True, a significant part was made up of celebrities. But it is still a respectable figure.
The club installed mobile bleachers near the field, but most of those present could not find a place to sit. Some fans stood on the slope next to the main stand, others huddled close to the pitch by the klanders. Schoolchildren were given a director’s leave, adults took a vacation. No one could miss this spectacle.
Venice unleashed its creativity to prepare a wonderful and relaxed Thursday afternoon for everyone. This was evident, for example, during the awarding of each yellow card, when the replica of the actor Petr Nárožný “It’s a rebel!” from the fairy tale with Devils are not jokes rang out from the loudspeakers. The alternation was accompanied by the chorus of the song “Já už jdu” by František Ringo Čech.
The home fans, who were sitting damn close to the square, were also having fun and expressing themselves as they usually do. And as befits and belongs to football in smaller cities. “Replace him, bum,” said one of them with exaggeration, for example, when the left back of Venátek Ondřej Komma messed up the cross. In the seventh minute…
The favorite decided the fate of the match relatively quickly, the fan fight was much more interesting. Visiting visitors from Tribuna Sever gathered at the newly established Tribuna Svah and battled for decibels with determined third-league boilermakers, who did not spare themselves even humorous inserts.
“The first and the last,” they thunderously chanted after Slavia’s opening goal.
“Give them hell,” they launched a quarter of an hour before the end, when Venice was already losing by four goals.
Then they had an honorable success thanks to Patrik Žitka, an accountant from the brewery and a fast-footed forward in one person. “It was all very nice. I’ve probably never played in front of so many people. Even the result is not so terrible,” the hero of Venice was pleased.
Beer was flowing, baked sausages smelled all over the premises. But Venice did not only appear outside the defined area of the field. The leaders of the highest competition were also treated to a top-class surface.
“Honestly, I’d say half the league doesn’t have that kind of turf. I have to take my hat off to the way they take care of him,” praised Slavia’s assistant Milan Kerbr, who then added that he really enjoyed the atmosphere of the duel. “Although I thought it was a bit strange that when the players went to the cabins for a break, they took pictures with the fans and handed out autographs,” he grinned.
Not to be, when a special “Place for autographs” section was created in the match magazine for supporters…
As expected, Slavia took home the win from Venice. But the winners? You would find a whole range of them in the home team as well. Likewise among football fanatics from Venice, who have something to tell the next generations about.
