Watching the games

The House of Sizzle

We spent Saturday night and Sunday afternoon as spectators at two very different sporting events. We watched the Syracuse-Louisville basketball game on TV in a sports bar on Saturday night and we attended a soccer match that pitted the local Florentine team against Cesena, a team from a town on the eastern coast of Italy near Ravenna. While we watched these two games, we participated in two different societies, one very familiar and one quite different.

The basketball game was the last regular season basketball game for Syracuse. Of course, we knew in advance that we wouldn’t be able to use our ticket to attend this game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse so we had made plans long ago to pass these tickets along. As the year wore on and as Syracuse kept winning games, we really wanted to see how this final regular season game would turn out. The complicating wrinkle was that the game began here in Florence at 10pm. Would we be able to overcome our jet lag and nap enough to see the game?

Looking at souvenirs

We knew that the game would probably be shown at the House of Sizzle, a local hangout for young Italians and American students. (For some reviews, see House of Sizzle reviews.) Not a great spot for traditional Tuscan cuisine but they do have multiple large screen TVs and the owner, Francesco, is a fan of American basketball. He is also a friend.

We stepped in the door of the House of Sizzle at about 9:45pm and the average age of the patrons crept upward from approximately 22 to 22.3 with our presence. We joined the others drinking beer and soon we were cheering SU on while most of the other patrons were dancing and singing in other areas of the restaurant. Of course, SU won the game and we walked home happy somewhat past midnight while young people were still streaming into the House of Sizzle and the area.

A fan

We woke the next morning and got ourselves ready for another game, a soccer game between the Florentine team, known here as La Viola by their team color, and Cesena who wore white. Florence has had a difficult year and was ranked 13th among the 20 major league soccer teams in Italy in what they call Serie A. The Florentine fans are connoisseurs of the sport and expect that their team should be performing much better. Fortunately, Cesena was ranked 20th in the 20 team league and this should have been an opportunity for the local team to celebrate a victory at the expense of a lesser team.

Flag waving Italian style

The stadium is a concrete bowl that seats 47,000 but the crowd was less than that for this game because of the La Viola’s recent weak performance. Both the crowd and the stadium are very colorful. People wave purple flags, wear purple scarves and hats, and sing and chant. The atmosphere is much like what you see on TV for Duke home basketball game, constant cheering, people bobbing up and down. Add to this Italians singing their cheers for their team. (They don’t sing at Duke games, do they?)

The game begins

The first half was slow and disorganized. Cesena looked like a last place team but so, unfortunately, did Florence. The crowd was restless and we learned some interesting new phrases in Italian. At the end of the first half the local team was booed as they left the field. (Italians sometimes boo at concerts, too, when they are disappointed with the piece of music or the performer. They are demanding.)

La Viola and the crowd came alive in the second half. Florence scored twice and the game ended with the local team victorious. The small group of spectators from Cesena berated their own players loudly after the end of their game for their lack of spirited play. This is a tough sport in which to perform poorly. Here is a recap of the game. Here is more about the Florentine team.

Flags, fans, and villas beyond

Florence was on the spot in the lower reaches of the Serie A teams. Cesena was in an even worse position. At the end of the season the bottom three teams in Serie A are demoted (or relegated) to the minor league of Italian soccer called Serie B. The best teams in Serie B are promoted to Serie A. The fans in some cities must be very happy at the promotions but the fans in the other cities must be livid. Imagine if the Minnesota Twins or the Houston Astros major league baseball teams had been replaced by strong AAA teams. It would have been a hellstorm in those cities. That would add real competitive pressure to the great American pastime.