stad rouchoda

“I have been in Venprek for a few months now. They are football-mad here. You are either a rotego, or a grooneweiz. It was just my luck that Royale were playing Venpreker at home last weekend. My friend knew that I love football, and decided that I simply had to watch the biggest game in town, so he got tickets to it from the black market. That was how I got to the Stad Rouchoda, or as the rotego call it affectionately, Le Konigin, the Queen.

The rotego got off to a good start, their first attack a sweeping move finished off by a header that hit the crossbar. That got the crowd going, but the visitors got a goal from their first attack, barely five minutes into the game. That really silenced the crowd for a while. They went two-nil up in the closing stage of the first half. My friend was jubilant, for he was a grooneweiz; but he was really the minority. The second half saw Venpreker get two more goals. Four goals up by the 70th minute. Disappointed fans were leaving the stadium by then. There was this girl just beside us. The red and gold scarf wrapped around her neck told me that she was a rotego. She stood throughout the game. She was expressionless for a very long time. When the game ended, she just stood there for a while, staring at the field.

She was crying within.”