Same tie score, different opponent, different reaction

Players take the field

Sunday afternoon was cool and windy. Quite cool and very windy.

The soccer game this day was against Hellas Verona. While Florence has had a good season, Hellas Verona is stuck at the bottom of the 20 team league. This game did not stir as much anticipation as the excellent home game against 2nd place Naples two weeks ago which ended in a 1-1 tie or the away game a week ago against 3rd place Rome which ended badly for Florence, 4-1. Hellas Verona looks up from the bottom of the Italian soccer world.

Single game tickets to soccer games are available only in the week immediately before the game. Interestingly, the prices of the tickets are market-driven. If both teams have good records, the single game tickets are priced higher. If one of the teams is poor, then the tickets are priced lower, perhaps a third of the price of the tickets to the more competitive games.

Kids take the stands

The ticket prices for this game were inexpensive. As a result there were many, many young children with parents, mostly fathers, in the stands. Also as a result, there was much less “interesting” vocabulary and no rude gestures aimed at the opponents. But also many of the children seemed to be only dimly aware that there was a game going on.

"Viola disaster

Overwhelmed by boos"

Tie flop with Verona

Boos at Franchi stadium

And the coach (Paola Sousa) says, 

“The team deserved the boos”

Florence scored late in the first half. Verona scored late in the second half to tie. The play seemed sloppy and disorganized. The locals groaned and the children made paper airplanes out of booklets handed out as advertising. Not an impressive game.

Here is a link to the ESPN story on the game:  Fiorentina 1-1 Hellas Verona - ESPN FC.

Two weeks ago Florence played a crisp, focused game against a good team and tied. Local people were pleased with the game even though Florence moved down slightly in the standings. This game also ended in a tim but the local people had expected better. There was some catcalls. The local newspapers hammered the team.

Two tie games with the same score but very different reactions.