OM Game

Saturday night we went to Marseille to witness our first European soccer (football) match. Prior to leaving, everyone had warned us that we should really go with a guy because people would harass us a lot, but we figured that a group of 7 girls would be able to protect themselves. While walking in town, we weren’t so much as harassed, but encouraged as OM fans. We got a lot of cheers (“Allez OM!”) and a lot of “I love you”s.

We made our way to the Official OM Gear store, and almost all of us bought jerseys (kids size, of course, so they were only 15 euro). We then went and ate stadium food outside the Velodrome and made our way in. Of course, you can’t enter the arena and then walk all the way around it, like in the States. You have to go to the correct entrance to begin with; otherwise you can’t get to your seats. Naturally, we were at the farthest point from our entrance, and had to walk probably the better part of a mile to go through the surrounding streets to get to the other side of the stadium.
Once inside, the atmosphere is amazing. The fans are incredibly dedicated with each end of the stadium having their own “cheer leader” on a loudspeaker. Sections cheer regardless of what the other sections are doing, and each also has their own music, so there is always a lot going on. Confetti rains down on the spectators and massive flags are waved throughout the entire game.

There was no national anthem, no club anthem; they just kind of started playing. There were about 100 fake injuries during the course of the game, and I have to say the acting was less than convincing, but if the player laid on the ground long enough (most likely while the play was continuing because the ref didn’t believe him) the medical crew would run out with the stretcher, everyone would begin to almost be concerned, and then he would pop up and sprint away. I’m not sure if OM was playing their sixth string, or what, but I have to say that they looked very sloppy and not very impressive on the field. People in the stands started making paper airplanes out of the magazines that they had been given at the door. So while the players were faking injuries on the fields, the stands were going crazy with paper airplanes, some of which even made their way all the way down on to the field.

OM ended up winning 2-0 against Saint Etienne. It was a very fun atmosphere, although maybe not the greatest game in the world. I would highly recommend seeing a soccer match in Europe where the sport means so much more than it does in the States.