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A visit to the Colmar stadium has been considered for a long time – we know the city itself very well, by the way it is picturesque and even has a nice district called A Small Venice. The stadium is visible from the A35 motorway a few hundred meters away.
The occasion was finally there – the 15/16 season opening of League National, France’s third tier of the football competition. The visiting team logo and the colors resemble those of Inter Milan. However the numbers on the back of nero-azzuri jerseys are visible and those on FC Chambly’s (black on blue) not at all which is probably intended to make referees’ life harder.
The audience turned out quite large, clearly thirsty for league emotions. There is no club nearby in a higher division. Interest in the souvenir shop was very minimal though, much more attention was given to gastronomic points offering Alsatian pizza (or “Flammenkuchen”) as well as Alsatian hot dogs, along with beer and soft drinks.
The match started on time, but after about 25 minutes there was a longer break, initially for unclear reasons. It turned out that one of the assistant referees had fainted and had to be replaced by the technical referee who did not feel too confident in his new role, and on top of that his signaling was repeatedly ignored by the chief referee. Apparently, the gentlemen do not like each other.
The match had a certain level and that level was low, having nothing to do with the performances of PSG or Monaco. To the extent that we began to consider the validity of staying for the second half. We remained, solely to adhere to an unwritten rule, with little hope for any emotions. Just before the end of the first half, a goal was scored by the visiting team – a random deflection off the defender turned out to be a brilliant pass that opened up a chance for the FC Chambly striker to go one-on-one, which he did not waste. Then, together with his teammate, he thanked the Most High in a way that left no doubt that both profess Islam.
The hosts did not have “papers for the goal”, but their rather clumsy persistence paid off. In injury time, the referee awarded a penalty for a handball, which allowed Colmar to save one point. Next, we immediately went home, savoring the prospect of the weekend just beginning. We did not talk about the match, and we probably won’t do so anytime soon.
