This evening I escaped work a bit early to head to my first futbol match with Evren, Hakan and Cuneyt. The game was at the Ataturk Olimpiyat Stadyum between my team, Galatasaray, and Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyespor. First off, traffic was mad on the freeway and looking around at the other cars, I realized that I was surrounded by other G.saray fans and that we were all headed to the same place. When we finally got there we had to pass through 3 levels of security, including 2 pat downs, for which I was swiftly directed to the one police woman standing in each line.
I found out that though seat numbers are printed on each ticket, no one really pays attention to that and unless you get there super early you're left to really crap seats or standing in the aisles. But then I looked around and realized that no one uses their seats anyways, at least not the G.Saray side, so it doesn't really matter. The fans seemed so caught up in chants and singing that many seemed to be missing the game altogether, which is ashame cause G.Saray played really well and scored in the third minute, this despite the fact that their head coach deserted them a few weeks ago.
A security officer came by during the first half to clear the aisles, but ended up being swooped up by several fans, including Evren, and chanting right along with them. Instead of hot dogs at the concession stands, there are what I deemed kofte dogs -- buns with pointy ends filled with little log-like koftes, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. The meat was a bit suspect but they were tasty nonetheless and part of my first Turkish futbol experience.
We cut out a early to avoid being caught in a second wave of traffic (and because we were triple parked). Final score G.Saray 3, I.B.B. zippo. oooooh aaaaay oh ay oh ay oh ooooh
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