by Posh » Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:33 am
Oddly the wettest ever game I've been to was Cittadella Padova v Siena in Serie B. Two minutes to go in the first half, glorious sunny day and about 26 degrees C, and Siena score a beauty from long-range. At this point an Italian sitting next to me points to behind the goal at the other end and the sky was pitch black. About 30 seconds later the heavens opened and I've never seen rain like it. About 5 minutes after the players left the pitch for half time the entire pitch was like a lake. There must have been a couple of inches or more of rain in about 10 minutes. At the same time the wind, barely noticeable before, blew up like a storm. Most of the advertising hoardings, free standing, blew down the pitch and a giant 20 foot wide football promoting the mobile firm TIM lost its moorings, bowled its way down the ground, bounced into the Siena fans, over the way end and on to the dual carriageway at the back.
By the time the half time break was over the sun was out, sky was blue but the lake had barely receeded. The game was abandoned an hour and a half later.
The other wettest was Linfield v Glentoran. The original match was abandoned because of fog (Linfield 2-0 up) and the revised fixture was then postponed 10 minutes before kick off because of rain. Cue a Tuesday night in torrential rain and a ref who thought if he abandons it he'd get lynched. The pitch was far worse than Darlington and the game should have been abandoned. With five minutes to go Jimmy Cleary knocks the ball on, sticks in puddle, two Linfield players slide past, Cleary flicks the ball into another puddle, ball stops dead and two more Blues players completely mis-judge it, he then flicks ball into the air and volleys it into the top corner for the winner. Glentoran win 2-1 and go on to win the title by a point. 5,000 Glens singing 'Jimmy Cleary walks on water' for last five minutes and all the way home.
VIVE LA REVOLUTION!