In spite of my former near-obesity in primary school, I was an avid sports fan and participated in nearly all the sports facilities that my school offered (and my parents paid in overhead). One of them , Ice Hockey , was a particularly unknown sport to most of us, the young hamburger- fed 80's generation of Turkey, born into the sub-culture of football where all other sports were considered as too foreign, gay or girly. All boys should play football and the underachievers were widely jeered at.
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Even the logo spreads fear...The first day of the ice hockey boot camp was an introduction to the ice rink and ,actually, how to skate. Although I rather performed well by not falling (better to say, clinging to the sidelines all the time) the coach advised me to choose a sport "not on ice". Since I was also "kindly" ousted from the sports "played with ball", I had to wait for another 5-6 years to be accepted in the volleyball team and then the rowing.
цска Ice Palace...constructivist architecture to its limitsThose memories came alive as I entered the Ice Palace of CSKA last friday with friends from work. The idea about the Ice Hockey game came up instantaneously that day and we, although with diminishing hopes for finding a ticket, exchanged ideas about the game, rules and the teams. Not a newbie like me, they were comparing the teams from Kazan and Moscow while I watched the souvenirs shop with awe (I bought a puck with CSKA star on it)
A scene from the gameIt is strange that I have become a CSKA fan for almost 2 years now. Not that I adore the red star memorabilia design or the beautiful colors, but it offers (as all big clubs in Europe) all tastes of sports under its brand. Last month i was watching the football team roll against Fenerbahce and now they were in their odd ice hockey suits against a fellow Moscow team, MVD.
This is as close as I could get to the rink...Red Army pushed me outI must admit that even an unimportant match like this filled nearly %70 percent of the Ice Palace. Boys with their girlfriends, who watched rather more enthusiastically than the boys, enjoyed the game. There wasn't any hooliganism and people from opposing sides watched and cheered side by side (a sight that we can see in Turkey when the Europeans would launch to Mars).
A member of the Army Boys Support TeamFor unaccustomed audience, like me, Ice Hockey is rather hard to watch because the game has a frantic speed and it halts during a climactic attack or a brawl near the goal. I need some time to get used to this sport. At the end, CSKA won by 3:1 and everyone peacefully went home...
1 comment:
It was exactly the opposite growing up in Australia - any other sport was favoured over football, which, of course, was chastised as "too foreign, gay or girly."
At least you never had to try and look for a women's football team in Russia (but hey, why not? It might be as popular as writing about Miss Russia!?!). When I arrived to SPb and announced my intentions to find a team, it was as if I had just arrived from the moon. Some six months later, I gave up... and settled for ballet instead (ha!)
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