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Playoffs
10 November 2001 -- Europe Playoffs for World Cup 2002, First
Leg, Slovenia v Romania, played in Ljubljana
Nearly all travelers have experiences that stand out among all
others as a favorite. Mine seems to change each time I go somewhere new,
but the opportunity to be present as a new country achieved its first-ever World
Cup Soccer Finals berth is something I will cherish for a long time.
I absolutely love international sport because the environment is
so much better than I've experienced at American sporting events. The
sport experience in Europe is still dominated by Joe Fan, and the teams are
woven deeply in the fabric of the local communities. To be sure, clubs are
still a business, but the economics are constructed differently, so the stadiums
have a better chance of being fully 
populated by singing, eating, drinking, and
most importantly, bonding of the members of the community. Equally as
important is that the visiting teams always have 'their' own section, and going
on the road with the club is as traditional as Weihnachtsmarkt in Bavaria during
the Holidays.
At the international level, there are over 300 countries
competing for attention on the world sport stage. Many sports are
regional, and each country seems to have its one or two sports where it does
well. But no sport is more international, and more loved by Joe Fan, than
soccer. It is the one sport that brings out national pride more than any
other. So, when ten-year-old Slovenia had the opportunity to gain its
first World Cup berth against favored Romania in a two-leg playoff, I knew the
tiny Alpine country was going to have the party of its life... win or
lose. And so, I planned my travels around being in Ljubljana when the
first leg was to be played, with the hopes of getting in.
And yes, thankfully, I was able to get a ticket.
Ljubljana's Stadion is tiny and simple by international
standards. It seats about 10,000 around a simple oval with a grandstand, a
really old-fashioned manual scoreboard, and a stadium clock that didn't
work. Above the seats was a walkway where pretzel and beer vendors hawked
their wares from simple carts and the standing crowd (including me)
congregated. Security was tight throughout the park, and the Slovene
police wore fully body armor, but they left people alone. For example, the
fan in the picture above climbed this tree outside the stadium so he could wave
the Slovenian flag... they let him stay there for the full two hours before the
game, but once it started they made him come down.
The blue, yellow, and red colors in the section directly across
from me marked the area reserved for Romanian fans, who bussed in from
Bucharest. These fans had their own entrance reserved to ensure minimal
opportunity for scuffling with the home supporters, a well-known problem in
world soccer. But there were no incidents of that variety apart from the
occasional snowball being thrown between the sections -- the greater number of
snowballs were reserved for the general direction of the far side linesman, who
the fans felt called Slovenia offside a little too often.
International matches are very ceremonial. The teams walk
out together in column, and a band plays the two national anthems. The
Slovenes cacophonically belted out their national anthem, waved flags or
antifreeze green SLOVENIJA banners passed out before the game by the national
telecom corporation (they also passed out antifreeze green balloons). I
bought a scarf from another vendor for about $5... it is the scarf pictured at
the top of this story.
The game itself started badly for the home side. Romania
(in yellow) opened the game with the majority of the possession, and pressed the
obviously overmatched and nervous Slovenes constantly. The home side
seemed content to defend until they could regroup, and Romania was frustrated
and unable to muster a good shot on net.
However, in the 26th minute Romania broke through on a fluky,
scrappy goal that left the crowd stunned and silent. But only
momentarily. It seemed like the Slovenes woke up after that and began
playing more aggressively. Their efforts were quickly rewarded when after
ten minutes of controlling the play, a well-struck 42nd-minute header levelled
the score.
It was pandemonium. I took the above picture during the
celebrations where the crowd was dancing, singing, lighting flares with smoke so
thick you couldn't see the pitch! It's fuzzy because I was being jostled
like crazy, and it stayed that way all the way to halftime.
The second half was more of the same. Romania, surprised
to be at 1-1, tried to step up the pace to regain the lead, but Slovenia's
defense gained confidence and kept the visitors clear of the goal area.
Romania's strikers showed poor form, and rarely put their shots on net.
Yet, Slovenia showed almost no success on offense.
Then the breakthrough occurred. A Romanian striker took
advantage of a terrible defensive throw-in and went in alone on goal in the 68th
minute. The Slovene goalie charged out to challenge. The shot went
right into the goalie's chest and he smothered it. With the crowd still
cheering, the ball went immediately downfield where it was played on a high
bounce deep in Romanian territory. From a bad angle, a Slovene striker
sails a looping shot that went over the goalie's head and into the side
netting. Just like that, the home side had gone up 2-1, sending the
10,000-plus into complete delirium.
Destiny seemed to rule the rest of the day. Romania
pressed and threatened for the final twenty minutes, but could not score, and
Slovenia won 2-1. The fans poured out onto the streets in jubilation,
draped their cars with flags, honked horns, piled into the downtown squares to
celebrate. (I, instead, elected to race back to my hotel room just in case
things got a little too rowdy. Thankfully, it didn't.)
And so, on Wednesday night, when the second leg was played in
Bucharest, I watched with great interest. My new Slovenija scarf was
wrapped around my neck, and I cheered and cringed with the flow of the game as
if it were USA playing. It ended 1-1, meaning that Slovenia advanced to
the World Cup on aggregate, 3-2.
It is a great feeling to have been able to watch a little slice
of sports history being made. Granted, Slovenia won't be fancied much when
the 32 teams take the pitch in South Korea and Japan in summer 2002, but just
making the World Cup was a long, grueling effort. For this young nation,
the destination was secondary, the journey was the most important.
The SLOVENIJA scarf, by the way, now occupies a permanent place
on the wall of my study.
(C) 2001 Tom Galvin
