25th May 2005! enough said? ...
"the miracle in Istanbul" best final in history of Footy! ; RED magic, it was in the Stars!! remains fresh in the memory, in my LFc heart and deep in my RED soul...Fate, destiny, call it what U want OUR name was on number 5 in 05! on 25.05.05!...
My "extreme story of 25.5.05..
ReplyDeleteI was living in the french/german region of the rhine river frontier , and without going into detail was having a "go" at the system, demos, revealing corruption by german "beamte" and a local politician etc on a free radio station, that was situated on the "german side" - the Thursday before Istanbul, I was stil planning to go to the game and have a "holiday" that week as 2 days before was also my birthday, and I had arrange d to meet my "estranged" daughter with her german mother, in a park near the "free radio" station, instead half a dozen plain clothes bizzies arrived (in the kiddles playground) and hauled me away for "helping the police with enquiries" - what they called investigative detention - what I called a violation of my rights to expose injustice! )
anyway…the next few days they kept me in "transit" where there wasn’t even a radio, and by Monday before the game I was denied outside contact and of course CERTAIN, I would miss the match..as I knew from my previous "activism" that it took the germans (deliberately) 3-6 months to "process" those who complain..and I complained..on a great scale..
Tuesday came, and after a day's "isolation" sweating on not even seeing or hearing the big match, they transferred me to a "colditz" style deportation building near the swizz border (as the "bus" passed certain signs I was reminded of Steve McQueen, riding around this hilly area on his motor bike in "the great escape"..surreal! …
WEDNESDAY 25.5.05; the day of THE match of the century; in the ONE hour exercise period (of 24hrs) that a man U fan from London (obviously) had a telly, so I managed to have words with him, on the way back to my " accomodation" (no bigger than the average bathroom) where I shared with an italian guy (who happened to be accused of murder!) I speak Italian, it helped! ..(no other brits in this place, and no outside/consulate contact yet) …
Luckily, we had an open door period for showers, and the TV was smuggled in (only a small screen..but..) well we all know what happened in the game , the drama, and memories which will stay in my mind and Lfc heart and my RED soul forever..a "funny thing" was...At half time the Italian "room-mate" who didn’t like Milan, luckily, said to me "you will win this"…and the "tradition" of banging doors when a goal was scored, became all mine in the 2nd half (there were a number of Italians & AC Milan sympathisers there) …I was made up, and some time late "escaped" when a journalist found out about my detention..but that’s another longer story,. ;)