Players invitation to FC Copenhagen
Posted on 02/08/2007
After a day with exhausting matches and great performances on the small pitches of the Town Hall Square, the players of the Homeless World Cup yesterday got a taste of the atmosphere in the Danish National Stadium, Parken, as they watched FC Copenhagen’s players beat Beitar Jerusalem.
A huge crowd of people in training outfits are waiting eagerly outside of the National Stadium in Copenhagen. They are not to play anymore football this evening, though. They are waiting for the heavy pile of tickets provided by the Director of the stadium that will allow them to enter the gate and climp the stairs to the tribune.
Not only to be entertained, but also to get inspired for the rest of their own football adventure in the coming days of the Homeless World Cup.
“It’s a good idea to come here, because we all love football. Hopefully it will be an exciting match”, says Poland’s number four player, Romuald Ratajczak, standing in the queue with his team.
Happy to be here
Finally in their places some Argentine players are making confetti, creating a rain of newspaper bits as the Copenhagen team is entering the pitch. Others are taking pictures, blowing horns and seem eager to clap in the same fashion as the Danish fans led by drum rhythms echoing in their seats.
Coach Peter Adam from Slovakia has also looked forward to seeing the game. Even though his own team lost two matches to Hungary and South Africa during this Tuesday’s matches, he says that he’s happy to be here.
Just score!
“Just score, damn it! I want to see some goals!!” Nikoline Høgsgaard yells. Together with three others she is a volunteer teamguide for the teams from South Africa, Hungary, Australia, Chile, Spain and Mexico, and clearly she enjoys football.
After about eight minutes the spectators jump up from their seats as FC Copenhagen scores the first and only goal during the match.
The players from Chile are intensely studying the game, as it proceeds. They exchange serious looks with the Argentines, as Beitar Jerusalem just exactly misses with a long shot next to the goal. Professionally they are concentrating on the match and here to learn some tricks.
Invitation by chance
It was the director of Parken Flemming Østergaard, also know as Don Ø, who had invited the tournament players to come and see the big match. The stadium owner had by chance run into some of the national teams and their Danish teamguides, as they arrived in the Copenhagen Airport, and later offered to add some more entertainment to their visit in Copenhagen.
Rumours also say that the special visitor of the Homeless World Cup, Eric Cantona, too appriciated the invitation to come and see the match, which he followed in the VIP-lounge together with the host of the night.
June Risum Scheibel
