It is very hot here these days, daytime between 20 and 25 degrees. Most people still wear jacket, nobody expected such fast change without transition from winter to summer. But the forecast says 10 degrees for next weekend.

 

On Saturday i went with Dasha and Marat to watch a futsal match Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg (ВИЗ-Синара) - Dinamo Moskva. In Russia futsal is called "Mini-football", also officially (the association is AMFRF, Association Mini Football Russian Federation). Dinamo Moskva was first before the round, Sinara (Sinara is a railway wagon and locomotive factory here in Ekat) was fourth, and this was the last round. The ticket was 150 roubles, 4 euros approx., but as Marat's brother used to play for Sinara for many years (now playing for the second Moscow team, not Dinamo), they had some free passes, and they gave one to me. We had quite good seat, and the match was played in the biggest sports hall in Ekaterinburg, called officially both "Palace for playing multiple sports" (DIVS) and "Uralochka", in everyday speech the second is much more popular of course (picture is stolen, i took some, but sun was against me). The sports hall is nice, modern and well-preserved, the only one thing i missed was the screen for replays. There was such screen i think, but turned off. Next to it there is a sports center of "Dinamo Ekaterinburg", with a field hockey stadion, a kayak-canoe center by Iset, and football fields.

 

In the first 10 minutes the game was balanced, but without any big scoring chances. Then Dinamo had a lucky (for them) goal, shot was deflected on a defender. Sinara did not manage to equalize, and after a huge mistake in defending, Dinamo scored it's second. Dinamo has 5 Brazilians btw, and the only notable non-Brazilian player of Dinamo was the goalie (Russian), who did great job. But when the game started to lose it's openness, and the Brazilians looked very confident with the 2-0 lead, Sinara had a great chance, and the first rebound was again saved by the keeper, but the second was headed in. The crowd was very happy, the atmosphere was great. A few minutes later a Dinamo player, who was proud owner of a yellow card already, was too late for the ball and too early for the shower, but had no other choice but to ask for the key from Dinamo trainer. The powerplay was played very well by Sinara, and after playing the situation clear, the right defender equalized with and accurate one-timer shot. The atmosphere started to be even better, the crowd and the players seemed to be believe that Sinara can beat Dinamo this time.

 

We did not know much about the league table, but it seems that for Dinamo equal or defeat was the same, 8 minutes from time they played with extra forward with pulled goalie. It seemed like that they do it for the first time (of course not, but it seemed like), they got 4(!) yellow cards related to illegal substitution (goalie did not come down but extra attacker went on twice, they are lucky that it meant one-one card for the goalie and the attacker, and one 2 for one of them ... the other two cards were to other players who hided their non-understanding of the situation by shouting with the referee). But Sinara couldn't score to the empty net as the goalie always run back fast, and after some minutes Dinamo again took the lead from a nice combination with the 5 players. Of course timeout (ponpon girls :) ), and Sinara plays with pulled goalie. Dinamo seemed to be defending well, minutes were passing without Sinara chance. But then, the extra attacker run into second center position with great pace, got the ball and firstly was blocked but he placed the rebound to the long side of the goal. Huge celebration, 3-3. Dinamo timeout, goalie pulled of course, one minute left. Dinamo attacks, but doesn't manage to score, Sinara almost scores to the empty net but the shot by the goalie is wide. Game ends, Sinara celebrates the 3-3, Dianamo players look disappointed. It was a really good game, although I lost half euro on bwin coz i bet on Sinara victory (they gave it with 2.80 odds). I am satisfied, and i will go again if there are going to be playoff matches in Ekat.

 

After the match I took a metro from station "Dinamo" to "Geologicheskaya", and went to the Confucius Insitiute, the institute is within the university, and Julia partly works there. There was a kind of open day, Julia only had to mention the free chinese food to make me go there. But the program was also interesting, mostly about chinese writing and characters, and drawing them. The food was a lot, and very good quality, and majority of people was women, so i could eat a lot.

 

After Confucius with Julia we went to a bar called Coyote Ugly (picture from the film about Coyote Ugly). It is popular in USA according to it's self-marketing, it's speciality is that u can (and employee dancers do so) dance on the bar. It's fun, although the prices are extremely high, i preferred to buy Baltika (beer) in the supermarket and drink outside, hide the other one and later come out and drink the other Baltika as well. Inside a bad beer costed 5 euros. Price reminded me to Finland, just donno how can people afford it here, as seemingly they were not all oligarchs, gazprom leaders. But about this, i don't write now, because of 2 reasons: 1.: it's long, 2.: I am just in the process of understanding it.

 

From the bar we took a surprisingly cheap (3,5 euros) taxi home, as by walking it would take more than an hour and through not so nice area.

 

Next post will be some special, maybe about food or sports.