Hajduk (Hi-Duke)

It will come as no surprise that the biggest sport here in Croatia is futbol(soccer). And the town of Split loves loves their soccer team, Hajduk. Everywhere you go you can see their symbol from the team or the team name written across a wall, a buliding, in the stores and plenty of Hajduk jerseys around town. So our president got us tickets to the big game coming up. Hajduk would be playing their rivals, Dinamo from Zagreb, who is the best in Croatia. This would be my first ever professional soccer game. I knew soccer games in Europe had crazy fans and the fans here in Split did not dissapoint! Our president made sure to get us seats in the safe section. The fan section in the stadium is crazy. People come the night before and morning of the game to store all there flares and signs. There is no parking near the stadium so we had a taxi drop us off and the place was packed with people drinking and hanging out outside since there is no alcohol permitted in the stadium. To kind of give you an idea how big this game was there were over 900 policemen at the game to keep in under control. Reese, Kiki, Becci and I went out that morning and got our Hajduk shirts, had to be in white the teams color and the donkey which is the teams mascot, to make sure we were prepared for the game. The beginning of the game was a big production with alot of the fans participating from their seats. The fans in certain sections had signs to hold up at cetain times and there was confetti everywhere. Right from the start of the game the crazy fan section was loud and didnt stop till the end of the game. We were in the "safe" section but near the small section for the visiting team as they were pretty loud themselves with their synchronized cheers and moves. Throughout the game the crazy fan section would throw out flares onto the field. At a certian point in the second half they all threw their flares out onto the field at once. They had to stop the game for about 5 minutes to get all the flares off the field. The place went crazy when Hajduk scored the first goal but then seconds before the 1st half ended Dinamo scored to tie the game and that would be the final result of the game. It was a fun game and Im glad I got to experience my first professional soccer game!