Paris Saint-Germain is the first football club that I can ever remember rooting for, but it is rare indeed that I get the chance to see them in person. The first time I ever saw them play was during a mid-summer friendly in 2007 when they happened to play against Dijon at the small stadium in the town where my grandparents lived.
Despite the small stadium size, the PSG hooligans were in full throat. Thankfully, they were also in a good mood. The only other time I’ve had the chance to see PSG play was this past weekend in Chicago, as they faced off against Red Star Belgrade at Toyota Park in the Sister Cities Championship.
Hey, where is everyone?
Paris Saint-Germain had beaten the Chicago Fire 1-0 on Wednesday, while Red Star Belgrade had beaten Legia Warsaw by the same score in the other match. The two losing sides faced off in the consolation match at 6pm.
Sadly, the Fire got trounced 3-0 in front of no more than 500 people as both the club and their supporters put on a relatively weak effort.
However, that match was not what concerned me (or our own Precious Roy, who accompanied me there), and it was made more palatable by two important facts: (1) free beer (included in the price of the ticket); and (2) PSG sat down literally right next to us to watch some of the first match. Obviously, I had to go over and talk to them, finding them to be very accommodating.
L to R: Marcos Ceara (2), Sammy Traore (13), Christophe Jallet (26), Sylvain Armand (22), Jeremy Clement (23)
There are two things notable about this picture.
First, when I asked them about the whereabouts of Claude Makelele, I was told that he was “using the little boys room” – considering that he didn’t appear over the next 15 minutes, I can only assume that he was avoiding me (damn restraining order!).
Second, Sylvain Armand is not smiling because approximately 2 seconds before I took this picture I had informed him that 13th in Ligue 1 wasn’t going to cut it next year. In hindsight, maybe that wasn’t the greatest thing to tell them but, hey, it is embarrassing.
After having won the Coupe de France earlier this year, I was hoping that PSG would get another piece of silverware in the Sister Cities Championship, and gaffer Antoine Kombouare obviously took things seriously.
Les Parisiens sent out a side resembling full-strength, starting Apoula Edel in goal, Armand, Traore, Ceara and Zoumana Camara in the back, Clement Chantome, Makelele and Clement in the midfield, and Stephane Sessegnon, Guillaume Hoarau and Jallet up front.
The match saw good action from both sides, and I have to say that the Red Star Belgrade supporters, who made up about 1000 of the reported 6000 in attendance, were impressive – very vocal and extremely well-behaved. The first half saw more opportunities for PSG (I would estimate maybe 5 shots on goal compared to 2 for Red Star), but neither club was able to break through. The match seemed to turn early in the second half when Camara saw a (deserved) straight RC for a bad tackle from behind. Soon after, Cadu raced forward to beat Edel coming off his line and slid home a shot underneath the netminder. Despite the man-disadvantage, PSG rallied and were rewarded with an excellent stoppage-time goal from Ceara.
We were fortunate in that PKs were taken at our end, so were able to truly appreciate the skill of all of the players involved. Both clubs made their first 6 PKs, and then Belgrade GK Sasa Stamenkovic tipped the effort from PSG striker Jean-Eudes Maurice over the bar (sadly, it wasn’t tipped hard enough to come into our section of the stands). The match-winner came on the next shot, with the honors going to winger Milan Jeremic, who then sprinted to celebrate in front of the Red Star supporters.
Although PSG lost, it was a great match in a great atmosphere (despite the relatively low attendance) and it was great to be able to see my team live. Getting a chance to actually speak to players that I’ve watched every Saturday (most often on a shaky internet feed) definitely made it worth the trip.
>Sadly, the Fire got trounced 3-0 in front of no more than >500 people
Man, that sucks….was it raining that day?
I was at the Wednesday game and can say that there was practically zero advertising for this anywhere in the city. The Fire FO went as far as not even really notifying season ticket holders the tourney was even happening. Really dropped the ball on this, both on and off the field.
RM: It was maybe the nicest day of the year so far.
Mac: The only reason I found out about it was because I was at the Dynamo game and they had the ad running on the sideboards at field level. Fortunately the Serbian community found out and they were there en masse, really they had the southeast corner packed. It was cool.
Sad that they couldn’t even promote the event just a little bit.
It truly was pathetic. The Wednesday game was even worse. Cheers to Red Star supporters, as balls-out crazy as they were. Watching them was well worth the price of admission.