I promised to go back to Benevento today. Argentina and Iceland took up too much space yesterday.
The team from the small town of Benevento, in the hills north of Naples won their first point in Serie A on Sunday, in the first season ever in Italy's top division. If you don't know the story by now, they scored a 94th minute equalizer against Milan for their first point of the season. The historic goal had a story of it's own because it was scored by the team's goalkeeper, Alberto Brignoli.
There's a lot of videos online of the goal, good videos from TV. But I chose this one, where you can barely see the way the goalkeeper flung himself at the ball. But that's not my point. I love watching the fans celebrate. Look how incredibly happy they are, that their team, hopelessly bottom of the league scored a last minute equalizer against Milan. And the crowd looks like it's what everybody in the town does on a Sunday afternoon: go to the stadium to watch the team. It's a mix of young and old and they all look like they are part of a happy community. It has the look of old fashioned football supporting, like the my days of old watching the local football at our stadium in Malta. I especially like the guy shouting over the wall to the outside of the stadium, "Brignoli scored!"
Of course after this I had to check the standings in more detail to see how desperate Benevento's plight already is. They are only 10 points away from safety. I think the comeback is on.
No comments:
Post a Comment