Galatasaray-Beşiktaş

On Sunday Lucy and I went to one of the biggest cross-town rivalry soccer games in Istanbul, Galatasaray-Beşiktaş. This was the first soccer game I've been to outside the US, and it was at BJK İnönü Stadium which Pelé called the most beautiful place to watch a game in the world, so I was stoked. After we bought tickets we were told by a Turk not to go this game unless we took a Turk who knew the stadium and the scene -- I guess it's usually out of control. Naturally, we decided to f that and go by ourselves. And really, with a 1:5 police to crowd ratio, what could go wrong? (That's not foreshadowing, so don't get your hopes up.)

Lucy went as a Beşiktaş fan since the game was on their turf. I was too wussy to do anything but play it neutral. Turns out that the only people brave enough to wear Galatasaray colors in İnönü Stadium were seated in a special section that's walled off from the rest of the stadium, surrounded by police in riot gear, and covered with a net. So I clearly should have worn black.
One thing I knew before we went was that the Beşiktaş mascot is an eagle.

One thing I didn't know is that eagles are somehow related to slippers. But the eagle redeemed itself at kickoff when everyone put their wing-talons in the air and yelled. Like so:

By halftime things were getting pretty cold and rainy. Fortunately there was tea, and fortunately we both had waterproof coats unlike Mr Newspaper Rain Hat behind me.

The game was totally awesome, nonstop chanting and yelling, even though it ended in a tie. My favorite Beşiktaş song was (what I'll call) the FU Galatasaray March, where Galatasaray and its fans get told off in three verses.

But at GOAL time, none of that matters...