AC Sparta Praha 2, FK Siad Most 1

At long last, I attended a professional football match.

You can pardon me for having not attended previously as, well, there really isn't much in the way of professional football played in the U.S. I missed out on the World Cup in 1994 (too young to have had a highly developed interest), and I don't really see the point of shelling out a lot of money to watch Manchester United or one of the other top European clubs play an exhibition of some sort on a preseason tour.

But now, the tables have turned. Or, rather, I have the good fortune to find myself in Europe at the start of domestic league play.

And thus I made my way to a venue whose official name shall be stricken from the record for being corporate.



It was the second round of play in the 2005-2006 Gambrinus League (yes, I realize that's also a corporate name, but 1) it's for a very good domestic brand of beer and 2) you've probably never heard of it and didn't even know that Gambrinus referred to a product), AC Sparta Praha against FK Siad Most, the first home match of the young season for Sparta.

Pity, though, that these matches aren't better attended. This match drew 7,782 fans, or about 37 percent of the stadium's capacity of 20,565.

I'm not sure why domestic matches don't draw more fans. I mean, it's not an expensive proposition, at least in comparison to going to any sort of North American sporting event. Maybe it's a bit more by local standards, but I really find it difficult to believe that it's truly beyond the means of most folks.

Here's what I spent at the stadium today:

Ticket: 70 Kč
Beer: 3 X 20 Kč = 60 Kč
Sausage: 30 Kč
Program: 35 Kč

Grand Total: 195 Kč

In other words, I spent a shade under $8(!)

Then again, it actually wound up costing me 95 Kč, as I later discovered that the ticket vendor had wound up giving me incorrect change, and thus ended up giving me 1030 Kč after I had given him a 1000-crown note to pay for my 70-crown ticket. So this wound up being quite a bargain indeed.

And mind you, it's not like I went super stingy. Granted, I could've paid as much as 230 Kč for a ticket, but as it was, I was sitting in the eighth row behind the goal line, down near one corner. And I drank three large draft beers. I mean, I can't remember the last time I bought a ticket to an American sporting event for as little as I spent on the entire outing today. And the only time I've ever had a beer at a sporting event was when I went to Game 1 of the 2003 NLCS at Wrigley Field, where I spent $7 for a 12-oz. can of Molson, only because I was buying a beer for Nikolai, who had managed to procure our gratis tickets. So, in other words, my outing today, seeing one of the two powerhouses of the Czech league and drinking lots of excellent beer cost a smidgeon more than the one mediocre beer I got at a Cubs game. (OK, in fairness, I could've saved a buck or two by buying Old Style, which would've made me one of the people, but most people in Chicago -- and America, for that matter -- drink truly awful beer.) I love this game!



The match itself was interesting. There were a good number of chances for both teams, and the level of play, while maybe not World Cup-caliber, was still pretty good.

It was scoreless for a while, but then Most took down a Sparta player in the box, setting up a penalty for Sparta captain Karel Poborský.



Poborský scored, prompting jubilation from the home crowd and his teammates.



A little bit later, a foul near the corner brought up a set piece, with Poborský taking the free kick, a low, swooping cross, which Tomáš Sivok headed past the Most keeper, making it two-nil.

But it wasn't a rout. Just before the half, Most answered. And late in the second half, they damn near netted the equalizer off a cross when a header rang off the woodwork.

At one point toward the end of the match, a loud noise sounded from the section of Most supporters, some sort of bang akin to maybe a firecracker or other small explosion or gunshot. Police, festooned in fluorescent yellow vests, rushed into the section and began beating down some fans. This comes at a particularly difficult moment for police in general in the Czech Republic, coming three weeks after Czech police brutally broke up a large techno party, CzechTek, which has prompted an unending flurry of criticism of police conduct from all quarters here.

Possibly alluding to CzechTek, but mostly out of good humor, fans in the Sparta section began chanting "S-T-B, S-T-B," a reference to the StB (Státní bezpečnost), the Communist-era secret police, in response to the police action in the opposite end of the stadium. Later, the Most fans picked up the chant on their own, which allowed Sparta fans to return to chanting slogans of support for their squad.

So the match was at least worth the price of admission. Actually, that'd be a disparaging description. I'd say it was worth more than the price of admission.

So I'm now eagerly awaiting my next chance to see some football. I already bought a ticket to see the second match of the third preliminary round of the Champions League, pitting SK Slavia Praha against RSC Anderlecht of Belgium. But, Slavia plays another home match next Sunday, which has me itching to go to that as well.

Of course, the really pressing thing is to pick a side to root for: Slavia or Sparta? It's an eternal dilemma for Praguers, and while I can get away with just rooting for the home side at the moment, the day will come in the future when I have to take sides.

It's tough, because Sparta has the working-class tradition, but Slavia has a sort of dissident intellectual tradition (it began in 1892 a rebellious debating society). The pedigrees of both clubs have much to endear them.