I enjoy that my Latvian readers are actively joining in here, writing comments and starting small discussions on my blog. Thanks for that! The most active writer, "Anonymous", wanted to know what I think about the recent football game of last year's Latvian champions FK Ventspils against the Swiss champion FC Zurich in the Champions' League group stage qualification. You should know that not only for FK Ventspils, this was a very important game...
This qualification period is also FC Zurich's third attempt to finally reach the Champions' League group stage. Also for Switzerland, every time a club qualifies for this competition, it's a small miracle.
I think that the day before yesterday in Skonto stadium, the smarter team won. A 0:3 is maybe a bit much, but the Ventspils defense indeed had more holes than any Swiss cheese. And regarding their attack - well, if you manage to miss the target with a shot from four meters distance, then that's obviously not the 1:1, but very, very bad luck.
I myself wasn't torn between the two teams at all. I was as hopeful as the Latvian fans. And not only because I know how important it would be for Latvian football if a team would qualify for the first time for the Champions League (even though the UEFA Europa League is pretty good, too). But it's also an old fight deep down in my heart, because the team I'm rooting for is not from Zurich, but from Bern, and its colors are yellow and black. This team is called "Jang Bois" oder "Jaunie Puiši", as Latvian journalists might write.
But I admit that before the game, I was a little annoyed: Swiss newspapers reported that the Latvian hosts had tried to play all sorts of little psycho games with their guests. Suddenly almost all the hotels were booked, and the guest team apparently wasn't invited to practice on the official pitch - instead, FC Zurich was told that they had to rent a pitch for 400 Euros per hour. Well, hello - that's not exactly normal, and it's not exactly how you treat a guest team, do you. I'd say that all the Rimi cashiers and central market sellers together are friendlier than these football apparatchiks.
After Zurich's officials were reacting rather angrily, it was reported that the hosts suddenly became cantingly nice and friendly. In my view, this sort of behavior has a bad smell of dark old times. It's the kind of behavior with one would expect when buying illegal alcohol, and not the way you want to be seen abroad. Unfortunately, not even an advertising film about Latvian Spa centres can correct too much of that kind of image...
What I appreciated a lot during the game, though, was the Ventspils fan club. They were the true football fans, colorful and loud, and even when their team was 0:3 behind, they still waved their flags and chanted their songs, mostly in Russian. My respect! Well, I could imagine that quite some Latvian spectators had mixed feelings about these fans and their Russian-language banners and songs. But how important can it be in what language you support your (ultimately Latvian) team, also considering how many of the well-known Latvian football players have Russian roots. 90%, someone told me, but I'm not sure if that number is correct. Anyhow: When the Swiss national team is playing, you could also hear the fans in two or three different languages. By the way, the Latvia - Switzerland world cup qualification game is up in early September...!
Though maybe, if I want to become Latvian, I have to start being bored of football, and switch to ice-hockey instead? But I couldn't give up football, I like it too much for that...
P.S.: Here's the legendary advertising film for Latvian spas by the Latvian Tourism Development Agency - a film that made every Latvian I ever met shiver in embarrassment... firstly, a significant amount of money (around 60'000 Euro?) disappeared for the production of this piece, but then, at least some of the people responsible for this advertising disaster had to disappear, too...
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