Tonight was host country Ukraine's first game of EURO2012, against Sweden.
There were more people in the fan zone than we'd seen for any of the other games. As there should be.
Thousands upon thousands of Ukrainians crowded into Svobody Square, decked out in yellow and blue. (Weirdly, these are Sweden's colors as well as Ukraine's.) In the spirit of the moment, we bought a Ukraine flag for ourselves to wear during the match.
The first half was uneventful.
The second half started off in silence as Sweden scored the first goal.
Ten minutes later, Ukraine's captain Andriy Shevchenko, the face of Ukrainian soccer, with two goals within minutes of each other, brought his team back.
This is what victory looks like.
Ukraine 2-1 Sweden
Thankfully we weren't standing in the section where people were throwing beer into the air. :P
The streets afterwards were filled with proud Ukrainians screaming their elation [UKRAINA! UKRAINA! pronounced "ooh-cra-EEN-ya"] and cars honking all the way down the street, waving flags out their windows. The sky was filled with fireworks, and everyone in the country (except probably the Swedes) went to bed happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment