(Reims, France)
When preparing for this trip, I wanted to make sure that I attended at least one professional soccer match. Focusing on the Netherlands, I found a game featuring my favourite Dutch team (Feyenoord) and made arrangements with a couple of my cousins to attend it. I’m really looking forward to it. As I was spending so little time in France, I didn’t even bother checking if there would be a game during my visit. Professional games generally are on Saturdays and I was leaving Reims on Saturday morning.
However, shortly after arriving in Reims, I stumbled across an article that discussed the opening match of the top French professional league. It was in Reims, they were playing Paris St.-Germain, and the game would be played Friday night! I still had my doubts that tickets would be available: Paris has so many internationally-renowned players (at least 10 of them play for their respective national teams) and Paris was close enough that its many fans could probably buy up any remaining tickets. However, the stadium wasn’t too far from downtown and I decided to visit the ticket office between champagne house tours, just in case.
Sure enough, there were still tickets available. It wasn’t cheap but I ended up with a seat in the 7th row, about 12 yards from midfield! I was expecting to be in a nosebleed-inducing corner seat with an obstructed view, as I had bought my ticket mere hours before the season-opening match against such a fabled opponent.
I went to the stadium very early so that I could see part of the warm-up and get familiar with the players. That was a good idea – it was very crowded near the stadium and there were police everywhere trying to maintain order. Everybody was frisked before being admitted. I found out later that Paris has had problems with some of its hardcore fans in the past.
The skill level, even in the warm-up, was astonishing. I recognized Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) and Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) almost immediately – yes, they really do have tremendous ball control and vision. Finally, it was time for the game to start…and for the rain to fall! It rained for most of the first half, and the seats were very cramped, but it was still great to be seeing soccer played at such a high level: the French league is one of the best in Europe.
Paris was clearly more skilled and they dominated possession of the ball. Indeed, they made it 1-0 only six minutes into the match and I thought that I would be watching a one-sided slaughter. But after scoring the first goal, Ibrahimovic hit the goal post on an easy tip-in opportunity and then missed a penalty kick. Perhaps sensing that they still had a chance, Reims struck a free kick that seemed to catch Paris off-guard and suddenly the game was tied. Then, shortly before half, a rare Reims counter-attack was perfectly executed and the home team took a 2-1 lead!
The fans were delirious. It was unthinkable for Reims to be leading against such a powerful club. While Reims used to be one of the top French teams, it was out of the top division for more than 30 years and only returned last season.
Paris tied the match almost midway through the second half and it seemed like just a matter of time before they took the lead again. However, Reims never gave up and their goalkeeper (see photo at the top of this post) played a sensational game. Unbelievably, they held on for the tie and the crowd was overjoyed. The police were everywhere and the stadium managed to empty rather peacefully.
This was a great (unexpected) experience and it will be very interesting to compare this to the Dutch game I’ll be seeing next week. First, however, I need to visit another country or two!