Standard with Cyril (26th Jan)

Cyril, my current host brother, and I went to a Standard game.  Standard vs Mons at home.  This one was quite a bit fuller, and the seats were in a different place.  The Pollains have 2 season tickets spots, so we went!  It was cold, and rainy, but fortunately, we were up under the covered section.

it says "Standard de Liège" up there.

That's the view out the window towards the south/west.  the Arcelor factory is that way.

before it started

Enter: the crowd.  They had flags sitting on the seats in the fan section.  I was sitting about where the white flags in the middle are for the first match.

official symbol, Standard de Liège

Enter: the teams

Standard supporters on both sides of the stadium!  They lit red smoke bombs right there in the seats!  

How much smoke the fireworks made before the security guards confiscated them

2 goals right in a row!

dizzy yet?

Arcelor again.  They are the giant metal-works factory that is all along the Meuse from almost downtown all the way out to Flémalle.  They had MAJOR cuts last fall, I think I may have blogged about it.  They say it's all closed, but I still see smoke coming out of the main factory, so, I don't know what's going on with it now.  They let so many people go that they demonstrated in the streets there in Seraing.

Halftime. We got chips and I got a coffee.

Standard is red.  One must know this.

(what would eventually be the) Final score!

Cyril advised us to skip out early so we could avoid the huge crowd in the huge cement staircase with no windows that leads out to the exit.

La Meuse.  I recently learned, (as in here in March) that I've been wrong the whole time about which direction the Meuse flows!  This is upstream towards Huy (and Arcelor and Flémalle).

That's downstream to downtown.  Cyril showed me a barge that sunk here near the bridge (Pont d'Ougrée) a few years ago.

After the match, Sylvie, my host mum came to pick us up, and we went and got a quick Quick.  I got a milkshake!
lol