This weekend I made it out to a game played between my town's team, FK Preslav (FK = Futbol Klub) and a big city somewhat close to me, Dobrich. Dobrich is a city with over 100,000 people, and Preslav has probably somewhere around 9000. Despite this size disparity, the teams are somehow in the same division.
Lining up the shot for the game's only goal
I guess home field advantage paid off… Our crowd was fierce, and the other team just couldn’t handle the pressure… 
All in all Bulgarian soccer hasn’t been too competitive with the rest of the world or even with Europe. Their one success (which is still talked about by people here) was in the 1994 World Cup, when Bulgaria stunned everyone and placed 4th. FK Levski is the only team to have made it to the group stage of the UEFA Champion’s League. Unfortunately their group conisted of legendary teams like Chelsea and Barcelona and they got blown out in all 6 of their group games.
I didn't think our odds were too great coming in, but I had my mind set on finally getting out and watching some sports. Even though it was a cold and rainy day, I'm glad I did. It was a fun game to watch with a lot of slipping and sliding around the field. However, this made the play a bit sloppy and a lot of fouls were called for both teams throughout the match (one guy even pushed a ref). The game remained scoreless until the last 15 minutes of the game, when Preslav scored. They were able to hang on to the victory despite some close calls for the 1-0 upset win.
Preslav's jersey is navy blue with red trim, and Dobrich is in Packers colors (yellow and green). It was therefore very easy for me to join the rest of the crowd in rooting against them.
Lining up the shot for the game's only goal
I guess home field advantage paid off… Our crowd was fierce, and the other team just couldn’t handle the pressure… 
In Bulgarian soccer there are 3 tiers - A group (the premier/professional league), B group (the winner of B group gets to move up into A, and the worst in A group gets demoted to B), and V group (the winner of V group gets to move into B group, etc.). Preslav is in V group...
The biggest rivalry in the country is FK Levski vs. CSKA (both play in Sofia in different stadiums), and dang it is intense. It seems everyone in the country is at a 50/50 split as to which team they support, and they might as well be the only two teams in the league. Levski has won the Bulgarian championship (called the Bulgarian Cup) something like 26 times, and CSKA has won it around 20 or so. The team that has won it the 3rd most only has 6…
All in all Bulgarian soccer hasn’t been too competitive with the rest of the world or even with Europe. Their one success (which is still talked about by people here) was in the 1994 World Cup, when Bulgaria stunned everyone and placed 4th. FK Levski is the only team to have made it to the group stage of the UEFA Champion’s League. Unfortunately their group conisted of legendary teams like Chelsea and Barcelona and they got blown out in all 6 of their group games. There is however, one shining light for the Bulgarians – Dimitar Berbatov. He’s the captain of the Bulgarian national team, and plays (and starts!) as a forward/striker for none other than the world famous Manchester United. He's also played for Tottenham Hotspur, Bayer Leverkusen, and CSKA Sofia. Needless to say the Bulgarians are really proud of him, and he has risen to national hero status. This guy’s face is everywhere, and he’s on the news and sports highlight reels pretty much every night, even if he didn’t do anything remarkable.
Maybe someday in the far future, FK Preslav will move up through the ranks to reach Bulgarian Super Cup glory, or play in the Champions League, but for now the people of Preslav and I are just happy to have something to watch on Saturdays.
Until next time...
4 comments:
Next time you should probably go earlier to beat the crowds and get a good seat! :-) How was the half-time event? Do they have any chants to spur the players on?
I don't know if I'll be able to beat all the season ticket holders...
Half-time events consisted of eating sunflower seeds, smoking, and complaining about the refs.
I didn't hear any chants, but maybe next time I'll try to start one. We'll see how that works out....
How exciting. Europeans are MAD about their futbol -- much like us with baseball and pro-football. But Soccer is the older game, and it is WORLDWIDE vis-a-vis our baseball and american football !! We envy you being able to see some REAL soccer!
Connie & Gramps.
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