Quang NinhOn the morning of May 20, Ms. Le Thi Phuong stuffed her ID card into her pocket and walked to Cam Pha City Stadium to wait in line to receive tickets to watch the women’s soccer final.
“tickets will be issued at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning (May 21), but I have to go now to be sure,” said a 72-year-old woman from Cam Trung ward.
Arriving at the place, Mrs. Phuong realized that she was not the earliest. There were about 80 people who came before her, laid bricks, arranged chairs with names, home addresses … close to the iron fence on the way to the yard. Without chairs, bricks or buckets, she wrote her name on paper, stuck to the wall where she stood.
At more than 9 am, the functional force of Cam Pha city sent the car to remove all bricks, chairs and other items to avoid chaos and loss of urban beauty.
People use pens to write their names on the wall or use chalk to divide umbrellas under the road. In the afternoon of the same day, these “queuing” methods were once again poured and washed by specialized vehicles.
Bricks, chairs and nameplates are “lined up” before the ticketing day, the morning of May 20. Image:Trung Hieu
At the age of 72, this is the first time Ms. Phuong has attended football matches directly, from qualifying to the final. “Two games ago, I also lined up to get tickets to the field. The atmosphere in the stands was very exciting,” she said.
On the evening of May 20, Mrs. Phuong and some neighbors brought chairs and mats to sit and wait. She said, after 8 o’clock, there were already a few hundred people lined up behind, mostly teenagers, the number of elderly people like Ms. Phuong was not much. Having a nice place by queuing up early in the morning, she said she would watch the place until midnight, then wait for her son to return from work to change shifts. Tomorrow morning she will come out again.
Wanting a pair of tickets to watch the women’s football gold medal match between Vietnam and Thailand for the whole family, at noon on May 20, Mr. Tran Linh from Cam Son ward went to the stadium, lined up with a mat and pillow, ready to lie down if tired. When he arrived, there were already many people waiting. “Everybody is determined to have a take-away ticket. Many families send someone to look after them, afraid of being filled with seats,” said the 40-year-old man.
Anh Son is about a kilometer from the stadium. His residential area has been installed with a large LED screen broadcasting the match live. But he wants to bring his wife and children to experience the atmosphere in the yard. “This is a regional sporting event, once every 19 years. And it’s more honor to be held in my hometown. I don’t want to miss it,” he said and said after arranging the work, Accompanying children to study, the same evening will calculate to arrange seats.
Anh Linh hugs a mat and a pillow to Cam Pha stadium to queue to buy tickets, noon on May 20. Image: flexible ceiling
Cam Pha Stadium has a capacity of about 16,000 seats, since previous matches have not met all of the fans’ demand to watch. The field is always overloaded, the number of people pouring in, even the matches without the Vietnamese team playing.
“There are few tickets, many people, if you want to get a seat, you have to queue from the night before,” said Nguyen Dong, 32, who lined up at the stadium at midnight, dawn on May 21.
Not only the final, other matches on Cam Pha Stadium, Mr. Dong had to queue all night. He said “laying bricks” waiting to receive free tickets is also a pleasure. This is an opportunity for football lovers, sports enthusiasts, looking forward to empowering the home team to have the opportunity to talk and share. “There were a lot of people queuing, but all were civilized, polite, respecting the order before and after. There was no quarrel or scuffle,” said the 32-year-old man, laughing.
Some people think that the act of queuing, arranging seats to wait for people’s turn is a bit excessive, following the movement, and does not show love for sports, but Dr. Nguyen Anh Hong, a cultural researcher, said that it is difficult to draw a clear line between these two concepts.
“In addition to the love of sports, I think this is a civilized lifestyle, showing the culture of queuing in sequence, not jostling or pushing. This is very commendable,” said Ms. Hong.
Besides, the researcher emphasized that the act of queuing up early to wait for tickets to the finals is the motivation for the players to perform well, especially in a society where there is still inequality between men’s and women’s football.
“Many people consider men’s football to be a king sport, disregarding women’s football. But queuing up all night waiting for tickets to see female players on the field shows a positive change in thinking. Even many people have to spend money to buy tickets on the black market, because they want to go to the stadium to cheer,” Ms. Hong said.
Do not stack bricks and chairs due to the loss of urban beauty, people in Cam Pha use pens and chalk to write their names on the street to mark their locations, noon on May 20. Image: Dung Mai
Ms. Duong Dung in Cam Son ward is an example. Seeing many people placing bricks, folding chairs, bringing blankets and mats to reserve seats, the 44-year-old woman urged her son and daughter-in-law to line up because they were busy selling goods in the market. “Looking at the group of people queuing for nearly a kilometer, I am also worried, afraid that the ticket will not be sold until it’s my turn. But let it go, keep lining up, and in case the tickets run out, I will buy them back from people who don’t need them, but the price is certain. will be tall”, Ms. Dung said.
This isn’t the first time she’s thought of a buy-back option. In the semi-final match on May 18, Dung’s son and his wife lined up from 6 am to noon but still had to return empty-handed. After that, she had to spend 500,000 VND for a ticket at the black market, because she did not want to miss the opportunity to cheer for the home team.
More than an hour’s drive from Cam Pha Stadium, Ngoc Mai, 24, from Ha Long City chooses to watch television, even though she loves women’s football. “People in Cam Pha have an advantage, they easily queue and receive tickets. But my family is far away, afraid of coming late, not to mention people queuing up a day before,” Mai said. In the previous three matches, she had the opportunity to watch the semi-final on May 18, given a ticket by a friend.
“I see people today cheering for women’s football as much and as passionately as the men’s team. I believe the Vietnamese women’s team will shine on Cam Pha stadium,” she said.
Sitting in the middle of the night, Phuong still hopes her efforts to queue up 24 hours in advance will be rewarded with a pair of tickets to the field.
“I hope the enthusiastic support of the fans helps the female players have the best motivation to compete and win the gold medal. There is nothing to worry about waiting in line from morning to night,” she laughed.
Quynh Nguyen
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
