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Olympiakos Piraeus vs. Panathinaikos
Athens, Greece
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Rivals, The Offbeat Guide To The 92 League Clubs, is one of the best derby books available.
Read the review |
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| Genoa - Sampdoria (0-1) |
| Serie A, 17 February 2008 |
| Stadium : Luigi Ferraris |
| Attendance : 32.000 |
There are a lot of derbies in the world, but what makes the derby della lanterna (the light-house derby) one of the most beautiful of the World ? Of course the fact that 95% of the derbies are played without any violence between the fans of both clubs that share the English-styled Luigi Ferraris stadium. Men, women, grandfathers, grandmothers and little children, everyone can visit the derby with the shirt or the scarve of their favorite team and it doesn’t matter if your team plays at home or away. The only difference is the favorite team of the public in the Distinti-site of the stadium. Gradinata Nord is always home of the Genoa-fans and Gradinata Sud of the Sampdoriani, while the mainstand always is mixed: 2/3 of the hometeam and 1/3 of the visitors. The difference is the Distinti-tribune which is completely red and blue if Genoa plays at home and rossoblucerchiata at the moment Sampdoria does.
The beauty of the Genovese-derby is also the fact that both teams have thousands and thousands of colourful and passioned fans. In Italy the singing is equal with England, but there are much more flags and mostly they organize also a choreografie between the supportersgroups. Of course non of the groups wants to lose the choreografie competition, so the fans make beautiful visions with paperworks, flags, firworks but also big constructions.
Last week I visited my eigth derby, the first one in Serie A. Of course the level of the game with players like Konko, Borriello and Cassano never was so high, but to be honest I liked the derbies in Serie B more. In Serie B of course the players are less technical and tactical schooled, but much more passioned which is nescessary to have a spectacular derby. Also the number of players that is raised in the own youthteams is in a lower division much higher, because in Serie A there are a lot more foreign-players and substitutes of the topteams in the field who are not so passioned and involved as the own players.
Maybe the secret of the beauty of the Genovese derby also is the fact that one team has the most supporters (Genoa), and the smaller one (Sampdoria) is more succesfull in the field. Inside the lines Genoa does everything to beat the big brother and in the city and the stadium Sampdoria-fans have to do everything to try to compare with their red and blue opponents. In a lot of other cities the most succesfull team also has the most fans, which is less attractive to have a fantastic derby.
Like I told you last week I visited my first derby in Serie A. The homematch with Sampdoria as hometeam ended 0-0, so both teams wanted to win the second derby to be a few months the sportive king of the city. A long time both teams were equal, despite the red card of Genoa-midfielder Danilo after 12 minutes in the second half, but 3 minutes before the end the hired Real Madrid player Antonio Cassano beat 3 Genoa-defenders on a square meter and crossed the ball to Maggio that scored luckely in 2 times the winning goal. Because very irritant playing Cassano should be already 45 minutes in the dressingroom with a red card after 2,3 or 4 yellow cards the derby was decided by a fantastic player with a very bad attitude. In my opinion the Genovese derby doesn’t deserve it to be decided by such an irritating player that only is hired because his own club (Real Madrid) doesn’t like the behaviour of this big talent.
Next years 2 new derbies della lanterna with hopefully only real passioned players that can behave themselves! The Genovese derby deserves it !!
Report added : 24 March 2008
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