Cannons, Carabineri, and Calcio: AS Roma vs. FC Basel

During my whole time here in Rome, I have made it a priority to attend at least one football match at the Stadio Olimpico, where AS Roma and SS Lazio, the two resident calcio teams do battle every Saturday against other teams of the Serie A, Italy's premier football league. As our semester began to wind down, one fixture came to mind: the Derby della Capitale between Roma and Lazio, where an entire city would choose sides and battle for two hours. Sadly, tickets were unsurprisingly steep, but just as hope was waning, tickets for a match between Roma and FC Basel, a Swiss outfit, became available at a reasonable price.

Setting out into the cold Roman night on gameday, it became painfully aware just how far away the Olimpico was. Way north of the Piazza del Popolo, it took us more than an hour to reach the ticket stiles. Apparently, Italians are late for everything except for football matches, because will call had closed exactly at kickoff and our tickets were in the wind. Frantically, we rushed to the entrance and started pleading with the carabineri to let us in. After determining that we were indeed American students with a long standing affection for Roma (the fake jerseys probably helped), our tickets were finally delivered and we rushed to our seats.

Walking up the concourse, I was instantly overwhelmed, standing in one of the cathedrals of world football. 70,000 seats framed an immaculate field, and the songs and chats wafted down from the ultras section. However, fans were not happy: Basel had gone 1-0 up, and Roma was struggling. But as we shuffled through the packed throngs to our seats, fortunes began to turn. Roma began to dominate possession, with Captain Fantastic, Francesco Totti, pulling the strings from midfield. Soon after, Roma had a penalty, as Totti was hauled down in the box after trying to latch onto a crossfield pass. With the whole stadium waiting with bated breath, Totti stepped and placed his penalty in the bottom corner-cue massive celebrations, the aforementioned cannon shot crackling in the night air, and Totti's ubiquitous thumb-sucking celebration. 1-1, parity restored.

With the scores level at the break, the second half opened with Roma and Basel trading weak shots and wasted opportunites. But by the 60th minute, the game had once again tilted in Roma's favor. Urged on by the faithful, we (meaning myself and the three friends who had accompanied me) witnessed a spectacular team move. Receiving a throw-in near the halfway line, Totti flicked the ball with the outside of his right boot to his teammate Simone Perrotta, who took one touch to play it to Daniele de Rossi, the holding midfielder. Surging forward, de Rossi carved Basel's back line open with a defence-splitting pass to his striker, Mirko Vucinic, who blasted a left-footed shot past the helpless keeper and into the left corner of the net. The goal was a prime example of why I love football so much: free, flowing motion, capped off with an exquisite finish to set the Olimpico alight in celebration.

With the lead and qualification to the next round of the Europa League in hand, Roma set up shop to weather the impending Basel storm. Attack after attack crashed to nothing upon Roma's stalwart defensive line, aided by the interventions of an in-form Roma goalkeeper. The final whistle blew, the Olimpico cheered, and we went home happy, having experience easily one of our most memorable nights in the Italian capital.