Many entourage details that the viewer did not see on TV.
“The app shows 32 minutes, we’ll arrive early,” I told the operator when we got into a taxi two and a half hours before the start of the Super Bowl match. The hotel we were leaving from is located in the center of St. Petersburg, from the window you can see the light masts of the Gazprom Arena. But after 30 minutes we were still in a taxi, because wild traffic jams formed at the entrance to the stadium.
The golden roof of the Zenith club bus towered over the parked cars. It became alarming: will the scenario of the Champions League final in Paris be repeated when Liverpool was late? Usually, an hour and a half before the game, the players go out for a walk on the lawn, and here they still have to break through to the stadium. But everything worked out, Zenit met the deadlines, and we were in time for the match, however, we drove not 30 minutes, but an hour and a half.
I’ll tell you about interesting details that were not included in the television broadcast.
Tropical downpour in St. Petersburg
Accurately an hour and a half before the game in the city began to pour like a bucket. Those who did not have time to run under the porch or the canopy were soaked to the skin. Prudent Petersburgers stocked up on umbrellas, while others, on the contrary, rejoiced at such a natural soul and did not even hurry to the stadium. But it was comfortable inside the arena, the employees took advantage of its main advantage – they closed the roof.
– In the second half, we will have to open it, because it will become stuffy, – I heard a remark from the stadium employee in the elevator.
He was right. I don’t know about the players downstairs, but at the end of the first half of the match on the fifth floor in the press box it was hard to breathe. As agreed, in the second half Gazprom Arena opened up a little to the fresh air.
– There was a story recently, it was also a little stuffy at the stadium. They wanted to open the roof, but decided not to. Well this is just the element for the Brazilians! If they score two more, then open it,” a journalist sitting next to me told me.
As practice has shown – what is a closed roof, what is open, “Zenith” does not care. In each half, the hosts scored two goals for Spartak.
Tomer Savoy / Photo: © Personal archive of Tomer Savoy
“Russia is awesome bro!”
Remember the Brazilian journalist who became a meme at the 2018 World Cup thanks to his knowledge of Russian? Of course, all foreigners first of all learn Russian mat, but they do not always apply it successfully. But Tomer Savoy did it brilliantly and instantly became famous throughout the country. Four years later, he returned to Russia and attended the Super Bowl match, took pictures with everyone and shared his new knowledge of the Russian language.
– How long does it take for the players to enter the mixed zone? he asked me in English.
“Today, the Zenit troops will go for a long time,” I answered. – They won the trophy, while they celebrate …
“Damn (the word has been replaced with a censored word),” Tomer sighed sadly and in a very Russian way.
From Spartak, only Ruslan Litvinov said a couple of phrases in the mixed zone. The winners of the Super Bowl, on the other hand, gave out a bunch of interviews right on the field. And at this time, the audience, of which there were more than 55 thousand, left the arena. The demand for a taxi was huge, the application showed 35-40 minutes of waiting. Therefore, the operator and I decided to walk a couple of kilometers on foot. Among the blue-white-blue T-shirts and scarves, red-white ones were also traced, but all the aggression remained there, at the stadium. No one cursed, no one fought, everything was calm. Only occasionally were the chants of the Zenit fans rejoicing at the next trophy.
However, there was a feeling that too frequent victories dulled the feeling of joy. Actually, as they blunted the players, no matter what they say.
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