While in Trieste to do a City Guide feature highlighted elsewhere in this edition, the football fan in me was looking for a Saturday game to accompany Triestina v Padova on the Sunday! Initial thoughts of a relatively close game in Udine, where Lazio were visiting was one option, or the rather more obscure choice of Portoguaro, a town halfway back towards Venezia that was hosting Serie C of AC Mestre matches this term, who were due to host Vicenza. Alas both these options were scuppered as they ended up being scheduled for the Sunday. The proximity of Slovenia opened up an element of intrigue, here was a country I had never visited, let alone seen a game! I had read that it was possible to walk across the border at Gorizia, fifty minutes north of Trieste in the direction of Udine, and across into Nova Gorica, who by chance have a team in the Slovenian First Division, but alas, they were away that weekend! Just when I was resigned to just the solitary Sunday encounter, I found myself perusing the Slovenian Second tier fixtures for the first time in my life! Lo and behold, maybe my luck was in, Tabor from Sezana, which is just 15 kilometres from downtown Trieste were scheduled to be hosting NK Brda on the Saturday!
While it is only 10 miles essentially between the two places, as I discovered it is not easy to connect between them without access to a car. The bus from Trieste heads out around the headland via Muggia into Slovenia and the coastal city of Koper before heading back inland, arriving at Sezana 4 hours after it set off!! The trains that arrive in Trieste Centrale station terminate there. The steep surrounding hillsides that surround the city, known at the Murga mean that onward passage would need a good deal of tunnel. However, all was not lost, Trieste boasts the oldest tram line in Europe! It climbs the viciously steep slopes as a funicular railway in parts, arriving in the hilltop town of Villa Opicina, where as luck would have it, you can get a train into Slovenia as far as the capital Ljubljana if you want. Alas, the tram has been having issues with the line, and has largely been out of commission for more than a year, and the long awaited spring return has been delayed until the summer at earliest now. A bus does go to Villa Opicina, No2 is the fellow from Piazza Oberdan!
As the bus climbs out of Trieste the view over the Gulf is absolutely stunning. It is possible to alight at the Obelisco, just a short walk from Villa Opicina. It is well worth getting off here as you can marvel at Trieste below and a backdrop on a clear day that can afford a view across the distance into Slovenia, and just perhaps Croatia too! They are all tightly clustered in this corner of Europe. From the Obelisco it is a two kilometre walk to the train station, or one kilometre from where the bus drops you near the tram depot in downtown Villa Opicina.
The railway station at Opicina is as sleepy a rail hub as you will find anywhere in Italy. The occasional freight trains wheels in, and the Slovenian Rail service sends just three trains over the border every day in each direction. Given only seven people were waiting for the 10,35 am, which was 45 minutes late in arriving, you can see it is not an excessively popular route! Just ten minutes up the tracks is Sezana, and with the conductor selling the tickets on the train, it isn’t my fault he never came round on my short hop across the border! I made it, two hours and 25 minutes after setting off on the bus from Trieste, finally Slovenia, the 48th country of my travels!!
Sezana is a quiet wee place, quite modern, and for sure not really on the essential tourist map. It doesn’t really have a marque building to pull in the visitors, or indeed any building truly worth of note, but it does have a quaint little botanical gardens from where these pre-match notes are being written! On a glorious 18 degree blue sky April Saturday I have been enjoying the sun, reading and writing for around two hours and not one soul has popped into the gardens for a peek!
Like all good football fans, first task after getting off the train was to do the field reconnaissance as to the location of the stadium. As you can see from the photos, the Rajko Stolfa Stadium is a well kept, tidy two sided stadium, with a capacity of 1,200. Sponsorship has temporarily given the stadium the name The Cherrybox 24, a bit like York’s Kitkat Crescent of old, one that will stick in the mind! The club’s nickname is Ceznjice, The Cherries, will be an instant endearment for Bournemouth fans!! The Dorset Cherries should set up a fan appreciation, I am sure Tabor would love to see you! The stand oddly runs from the halfway line to the corner near the railway line, but I quickly realised that with the Police station across the road on the other “half” of the street, it was impossible to have it sitting centrally. Indeed, construction anywhere else round the Cherrybox will be tricky. Behind the one goal the train tracks would prevent expansion, and opposite the stand behind the scorers hut, there is a running track etc.
I had in truth never come across the name Tabor Sezana prior to my trip, but I have been keeping an eye on their results, and in those intervening weeks they have gone on a bit of an unbeaten run. A bad start to the campaign will hamper them getting involved in the promotion mix, but given Brda are third from bottom, I am confident I’ll be watching a home win this afternoon!! I did a little track record investigating last night in the hotel, and I noted the visitors NK Brda play in Vipolze a border town further up the Italian border in the Gorica region. They were only formed in 1973 and since the Independent Slovenia league was set up in 1991 they have dotted between the third and second tier, and are known as Brici or Vinogradniki, the Winegrowers, a much better name! Tabor have a more expansive CV having been playing since 1923, but since Independence they’ve hit rock bottom of the fourth tier twice getting promoted in 2007/08 and more recently 2011/12, and are just back in the second tier this term having been Champions of the 3rd tier West last season. The club high since independence was second division runners up in 1999/00, and in the Jugoslavian era they were runners up in the Slovenian Cup in 1975/76.
I have come in from the sun now, and awaiting the arrival of my lunch at a small bar. When in the Balkans there is nothing more tasty for lunch than Burek, a pasty-esque treat which can be filled with meat or cheese, washed down with a local Slovenian beer, all very nice, and with the Merseyside derby on TV to boot! I have encountered morsels of incredulity from the bar staff that someone from Scotland is in town to watch Tabor, and he loves Burek!!
****
Post match writing now down on the Molo Audace back in Trieste, enjoying the sun going down, on what has been a very satisfying day! I sure did put the hicks on poor Tabor, they lost!! It was a thoroughly absorbing encounter, played in a fine spirit, and the technical ability of both teams was a joy to watch. Tabor, having been on a cracking run of form showed that confidence in the first half, and despite well organised and determined defending from Brda, Tabor were good value for the 1-0 half-time lead. The interval sparked a mass exodus from the stadium?! Fears that they were only playing a half were quickly averted as I realised, Tabor provide no “in-house” catering, not even a box of cherries!! Refreshments could only be had from the shops that frequent the area underneath the terracing behind the goal. On a balmy hot afternoon, and with a good crowd of 400/500, it was all good business for these outlets, who perhaps rent their premises from the club!
Back in our seats, no sooner had the game restarted than Brda, who hadn’t mustered a shot in anger in the first 45 minutes, scored! It all went silly for a passage of time then, as seconds later, they did it again!! The Brda manager can rightly be proud of his half time substitution, bringing on No11 Alen Pavic, a long haired lad with an awkward but effect style. He immediately had an impact and was ultimately a tricky winger, who weaved his magic twice to set up both goals. The first might have had a whiff of controversy given by the linesman as having crossed the line. With No VR in sight, Tabor were doubtlessly still fuming, and they got done by the classic 1-2, literally! Amusingly, the little scoreboard box, where a chap was recording the action as you’ll see in a photo, when a goal was scored it required another bloke to come up from pitch side and change the board. At 1-2, he inadvertently changed the score to 1-5, but I guess looking down on it from above it looked like 1-2 to him!! Eventually someone noticed and the scoreboard was changed to reflect the correct scoreline!
After those blitzkrieg moments from Brda they reverted to type and went back to solidly defending their goal. Despite starting the day 14th in a league of 16, they never panicked and played with real determination. As Tabor got more desperate to get level, it opened up moments for our intrepid No 11, combining brilliantly with “phantom of the Opera” masked No 9, Sacha Varga, who perhaps was the man of the match, as Brda created opportunities to further extent the lead. In the end, neither side could find the net again, and at the final whistle Brda and their fans rightly celebrated. It was a reality check for Tabor, who didn’t play badly and fashioned a number of “half” chances, but I am sure the lasting feeling was that they had been done!
I have to say that the level of skill, and the sporting attitude of all the players was a joy to watch. The referee was firm but fair, and lectured only when he felt the players were straying into time wasting tactics. If this is the general standard of the second tier in Slovenia I would happily watch more of this type of game. I can see why, despite a small population the Slovenian National team always produces good football. I’ll be keeping an eye on both these sides from now on!
With the next train back to Villa Opicina not until 20,45, three hours after the game, I had arranged for a Sezana taxi to whisk me back to Trieste. 25 Euros lighter and 15 minutes later I am sat here on the Molo back in the wonderful waterfront setting of Trieste having very much enjoyed my first ever sojourn into Slovenia!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 