Livin' La Vida Luxem: Battle of the Titans

This week saw league soccer take a break while international players jetted around the world to jockey for positions in FIFA's 2014 World Cup in the form of the 'World Cup Qualifiers'. There were some matches of note like Spain traveling to Paris to take on Les Bleus...pfff. Or, the Juggernaut Argentine squad facing South American rivals Venezuela and Bolivia...meh. Even Japan had an important 'win and your in' game against the Kingdom of Jordan. While these matches may be of interest to those soccer-nerds deeply rooted in the weeds of international sport, all eyes from the rest of the Football-Watching-World were squarely focused on the match of the week;

LUXEMBOURG vs AZERBAIDJAN

As it just so happened, your mild-mannered cub blogger attended this awesome struggle for dominance in European football. I, along with 1,323 (no that's not a typo), diehard supporters froze our collective bums off watching this display of Kasparovian** sportsmanship. How could I not go? The national stadium is less than a ten minute walk from the apartment.

**Note** I believe I get credit for coining this term!

There are 229 steps...yes, I counted them :)

Shocker...it ended in a 0 - 0 draw, and I wound up with a head cold for my troubles. It was a good time though. The ticket was dirt cheap at €10, and beers were going for €2...not that I bought any. It was well below freezing before kick-off. As you can imagine, the stadium was quite empty, but Azerbaidjan did field at least 100 rowdy and vocal supporters.

Rather than take my seat, I found my way to the rail at the top of the 18 meter box at the east end of the stadium. Generally speaking it was a polite, if not subdued, crowd. I somehow happened to find myself amongst the Luxembourg Ultras...well if you can call them that. It's not like Port Said or anything. This grainy video was 'deliberate' in an effort to protect the identities of these ruffians ;-)