The entry title should read Messi and Kolkata vs Venezuela and Organizers.
A Once in a lifetime chance beckoned for us few football fanatics who lap up every action be on ESPN or Ten Action ! It was therefore imminent that when the gods of this beautiful game came down on earth to India we had to line up braving all fronts to be blessed by them, this was only possible after I was egged on by my folks which made this possible.
Ticket bookings were all done before hand thanks to the good BookMyShow portal. The trouble started when the Home on Delivery option was delayed twice and finally we were told to collect the tickets at the Stadium before the match.
Anticipating a mad rush of crowds for the tickets, we reached the stadium on the matchday morning to collect, but chaos and mismanagement on the part of BookMyShow representatives at the stadium and the Organizers left half of the fans who were not from Kolkata confused for there were 3 counters for ticket collection but no one was giving the tickets and we were asked to go to one counter which was giving all the home-delivery tickets which were to be collected from the stadium. This number was much more and one counter was not doing justice to the angry bodies which were piling up, the representatives could have been more sensible here and placed two counters with a clear written sign boards for each which was missing!
The match was due to kickoff at 1900 and predicting a huge queue we reached the gates at 1600 only to find a humungous line on the road, which was piling up rapidly. Yes this 3 KM serpentine mammoth line was for the 1800 Rs ticket. The wait on the line took its toll on us without food/water (which were banned inside) and this was grossly unmanned/unmanaged which many tried to take advantage of. We could not sight a single person from the Organizing / Event Management staff who could keep a tab on the queue and it was left to the football loving people of Kolkata and the argumentative Bengalee ( a.k.a Gennarro Gattuso) in each one of us which kept the Messi's from sneaking in the lines. Hats off to Kolkata and its people for this, anywhere else this would have been a stampede and a major chaos which was imminent as the cops were non-challant and were busy attending to the VIPS/VVIPS and were chilling out at the gates whist crowds were piling up on the roads to the stadium.
Speaking of which this was my first visit to one of the Biggest Stadium's of the world yes and the cliche of an Electric atmosphere is definitely an understatement. One must see this colossus arena to believe and this when jam-packed like Friday night makes any contest an experience of a lifetime for anyone. Sadly the organizers here did not mention the type of seating whist booking online and many of us travelers felt cheated when we were welcomed by err... no seats but steps to squat / sit / squeeze into. This one felt the Organizers should have mentioned or could have arranged for chairs so that people who did not want to squat would have gone for better seats.
All the cribbing and whining of the people disapparated at the sight of the Argentine Team coming on to the pitch, for a warm up as they cheered loudly for the new hero of Kolkata Leo Messi, the Dadu's and Kaku's of Kolkata gave their expert pre-match analysis with expert opinions and predictions alongwith the galagaal given to those who were not sitting on their respective stair ;)
The match was a cagey affair with both the teams not going all out to get the ball probably to avoid injury and to conserve themselves from the energy sapping heat of Kolkata. Full reviews can be seen over the papers but for me the stars of the match were Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano from Argentina and the defensive pair of Oswaldo Vizcarrondo and Fernando Amorebieta who had an disinterested Higuain and a over-cautious Di Maria in their pockets which left Messi tad isolated. The skill of the man was on show as India got to see the flicks,chips,passes, deft touches, fakes from the Barca number 10 which was the "paisa vasool" factor. The goal was from an industrious corner scored by Ottamendi this showed the resolute brickwall of the Venezuelan defense and the over-cautious approach from the Argentine players.The advent of Kun Aguero on the 75th minute in place of Higuain brought the crowd to raptures as the Citizen looked to showcase his skills and breathed much needed life into the game.
It finished 1-0 Argentina but it left a huge 60-40 score in me. Hope Indian football scene picks up and goes far!
A Once in a lifetime chance beckoned for us few football fanatics who lap up every action be on ESPN or Ten Action ! It was therefore imminent that when the gods of this beautiful game came down on earth to India we had to line up braving all fronts to be blessed by them, this was only possible after I was egged on by my folks which made this possible.
Ticket bookings were all done before hand thanks to the good BookMyShow portal. The trouble started when the Home on Delivery option was delayed twice and finally we were told to collect the tickets at the Stadium before the match.
Anticipating a mad rush of crowds for the tickets, we reached the stadium on the matchday morning to collect, but chaos and mismanagement on the part of BookMyShow representatives at the stadium and the Organizers left half of the fans who were not from Kolkata confused for there were 3 counters for ticket collection but no one was giving the tickets and we were asked to go to one counter which was giving all the home-delivery tickets which were to be collected from the stadium. This number was much more and one counter was not doing justice to the angry bodies which were piling up, the representatives could have been more sensible here and placed two counters with a clear written sign boards for each which was missing!
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| Do you see the end of the line ? |
The match was due to kickoff at 1900 and predicting a huge queue we reached the gates at 1600 only to find a humungous line on the road, which was piling up rapidly. Yes this 3 KM serpentine mammoth line was for the 1800 Rs ticket. The wait on the line took its toll on us without food/water (which were banned inside) and this was grossly unmanned/unmanaged which many tried to take advantage of. We could not sight a single person from the Organizing / Event Management staff who could keep a tab on the queue and it was left to the football loving people of Kolkata and the argumentative Bengalee ( a.k.a Gennarro Gattuso) in each one of us which kept the Messi's from sneaking in the lines. Hats off to Kolkata and its people for this, anywhere else this would have been a stampede and a major chaos which was imminent as the cops were non-challant and were busy attending to the VIPS/VVIPS and were chilling out at the gates whist crowds were piling up on the roads to the stadium.
 |
| The Car Says it all !! It was Blue and White all the way |
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| Salt Lake Stadium with its new found Lights |
Speaking of which this was my first visit to one of the Biggest Stadium's of the world yes and the cliche of an Electric atmosphere is definitely an understatement. One must see this colossus arena to believe and this when jam-packed like Friday night makes any contest an experience of a lifetime for anyone. Sadly the organizers here did not mention the type of seating whist booking online and many of us travelers felt cheated when we were welcomed by err... no seats but steps to squat / sit / squeeze into. This one felt the Organizers should have mentioned or could have arranged for chairs so that people who did not want to squat would have gone for better seats.
All the cribbing and whining of the people disapparated at the sight of the Argentine Team coming on to the pitch, for a warm up as they cheered loudly for the new hero of Kolkata Leo Messi, the Dadu's and Kaku's of Kolkata gave their expert pre-match analysis with expert opinions and predictions alongwith the galagaal given to those who were not sitting on their respective stair ;)
The match was a cagey affair with both the teams not going all out to get the ball probably to avoid injury and to conserve themselves from the energy sapping heat of Kolkata. Full reviews can be seen over the papers but for me the stars of the match were Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano from Argentina and the defensive pair of Oswaldo Vizcarrondo and Fernando Amorebieta who had an disinterested Higuain and a over-cautious Di Maria in their pockets which left Messi tad isolated. The skill of the man was on show as India got to see the flicks,chips,passes, deft touches, fakes from the Barca number 10 which was the "paisa vasool" factor. The goal was from an industrious corner scored by Ottamendi this showed the resolute brickwall of the Venezuelan defense and the over-cautious approach from the Argentine players.The advent of Kun Aguero on the 75th minute in place of Higuain brought the crowd to raptures as the Citizen looked to showcase his skills and breathed much needed life into the game.
It finished 1-0 Argentina but it left a huge 60-40 score in me. Hope Indian football scene picks up and goes far!
nice post! change ur name to reporterguy :P
ReplyDeletei know ... total reported speech ... :D
ReplyDeletebad blogger this young jedi is, learn from master yoda he should
worry not you should, alive is your blog, name of messi you have taken
ReplyDeleteno luke.....we're ur bloggin brother....
ReplyDeletevery good post....great description.....u shd've mentiond the goalkeeperz though.... ;)