Second time lucky but last night I finally got to see Getafe play at home. I had actually planned to see them a few weeks ago but tickets were hard to come by. That wasn´t the case last night in the 10pm kick-off against Valencia. Yes, they have 10pm kick-offs in Spain, even on a Wednesday night. The fact that the match was live on the tele probably also contributed to the lower than average crowd inside the fabulously named Coliseum Alfonso Perez stadium. Football fans will remember Alfonso Perez simply as Alfonso, the player who scored a dramatic winner for Spain vs Yugoslavia in Euro 2000.
Well, one man who wasn´t put off by either the kick-off time or the fact that the match was televised was Daniel, the man sitting next to me. I was too polite to ask but Daniel must be around 75 years old but he has been following Getafe his whole life and hasn´t lost any of his passion. As he put it, Getafe are “un equipo del barrio” or a small team from a small neighbourhood. He explained to me that for most of his life Getafe had languished in the lower divisions of Spanish football before finally gaining promotion to La Liga in 2005. Since then, they have reached 2 Spanish cup finals and one UEFA cup quarter final, narrowly losing out to Bayern Munich in stoppage time. As well as this, they have changed manager every year since being promoted and only have one player left from their 2005 promotion team.
As I listened to this I couldn´t help making a comparison with my team in Scotland, Clyde, who like Getafe live in the shadow of bigger neighbours, have a stadium they can never fill, change managers on a yearly basis and until very recently were punching above their weight. And the parallels didn´t stop there. As the game went on I began to realise that attending a Getafe match is much like attending a Clyde match.
Firstly, when you are in a smaller crowd you can hear every insult and everyone can hear your insults. This leads to a much more creative way of swearing that you don´t hear in the bigger stadiums. As Daniel told me, “this is a great vocabulary lesson for you”. Secondly, the atmosphere among the supporters is much more familiar than at a big club. This is due to the fact that more or less the same group of people come every week and very soon you get to know everyone who sits within earshot of you. Smaller clubs definitely have a more family atmosphere in terms of everyone knowing everyone else. Daniel actually thought I was the son of the man who normally sits next to him and was a little confused when I told him my dad was in Scotland.
The match itself also reminded me of some good nights at Broadwood. Getafe were up against the much fancied Valencia, with Villa, Silva and Mata all in the starting line up. Valencia went in front through Villa but Getafe fought back and were 2-1 up by half time. Like some of the older Clyde teams I remember, Getafe played as a team and won despite the opposition having more money or technically superior players. Getafe also suffered from some bad refereeing which led Daniel to tell me that 89% of violence at football matches is caused by referees. Quite how he came to this figure I don´t know but I certainly wasn´t going to challenge it. In the second half Getafe continued to press Valencia into making mistakes and got their reward with a third goal and in the end ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.
I said my goodbyes to Daniel, wishing Getafe all the best this season, and left to catch the metro home. To be honest I didn´t expect Getafe to have much character but I forgot that that is exactly the charm and strength of smaller clubs. They don´t have money, stars or a huge support but they got character and for Daniel´s sake I hope they survive for many more seasons.
Well, one man who wasn´t put off by either the kick-off time or the fact that the match was televised was Daniel, the man sitting next to me. I was too polite to ask but Daniel must be around 75 years old but he has been following Getafe his whole life and hasn´t lost any of his passion. As he put it, Getafe are “un equipo del barrio” or a small team from a small neighbourhood. He explained to me that for most of his life Getafe had languished in the lower divisions of Spanish football before finally gaining promotion to La Liga in 2005. Since then, they have reached 2 Spanish cup finals and one UEFA cup quarter final, narrowly losing out to Bayern Munich in stoppage time. As well as this, they have changed manager every year since being promoted and only have one player left from their 2005 promotion team.
As I listened to this I couldn´t help making a comparison with my team in Scotland, Clyde, who like Getafe live in the shadow of bigger neighbours, have a stadium they can never fill, change managers on a yearly basis and until very recently were punching above their weight. And the parallels didn´t stop there. As the game went on I began to realise that attending a Getafe match is much like attending a Clyde match.
Firstly, when you are in a smaller crowd you can hear every insult and everyone can hear your insults. This leads to a much more creative way of swearing that you don´t hear in the bigger stadiums. As Daniel told me, “this is a great vocabulary lesson for you”. Secondly, the atmosphere among the supporters is much more familiar than at a big club. This is due to the fact that more or less the same group of people come every week and very soon you get to know everyone who sits within earshot of you. Smaller clubs definitely have a more family atmosphere in terms of everyone knowing everyone else. Daniel actually thought I was the son of the man who normally sits next to him and was a little confused when I told him my dad was in Scotland.
The match itself also reminded me of some good nights at Broadwood. Getafe were up against the much fancied Valencia, with Villa, Silva and Mata all in the starting line up. Valencia went in front through Villa but Getafe fought back and were 2-1 up by half time. Like some of the older Clyde teams I remember, Getafe played as a team and won despite the opposition having more money or technically superior players. Getafe also suffered from some bad refereeing which led Daniel to tell me that 89% of violence at football matches is caused by referees. Quite how he came to this figure I don´t know but I certainly wasn´t going to challenge it. In the second half Getafe continued to press Valencia into making mistakes and got their reward with a third goal and in the end ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.
I said my goodbyes to Daniel, wishing Getafe all the best this season, and left to catch the metro home. To be honest I didn´t expect Getafe to have much character but I forgot that that is exactly the charm and strength of smaller clubs. They don´t have money, stars or a huge support but they got character and for Daniel´s sake I hope they survive for many more seasons.
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