Russia vs. Canada

Man describes the first hockey game he attended in Winnipeg.

RES.1: I would like to ask you, do you remember the first time you went to a hockey game here?
S.Μ.: Yes, I do!
RES.1: How was it?
S.Μ.: I’ll tell you the… the first hockey game?
RES.2: Yes.
S.Μ.: Ah, in the very first hockey I don’t know, because I might have… I had gone a lot, in many instances back then we didn’t have […], we had junior. We were going regularly, but the longest that I’ve waited in the que to get a ticket for hockey… ah… how long do you think I waited… in the que?
RES.1: : Eh, one hour?
S.Μ.: Hm, hm! Add more!
RES.2: For the juniors? A couple of hours?
S.Μ.: No.
RES.2: More?
S.Μ.: You know how long I waited for? Nine hours!
RES.1: What! Nine hours!
S.Μ.: To watch a hockey game. The Russian team was coming here. We had that they played with […] when we had the tournament, with the national… with the national team.
RES.2: With the national team and when was this?
S.Μ.: The tickets had been sold out, but they had retained up to five hundred tickets for the public.
RES.2: Yes. When was this?
S.Μ.: It was in… seventy…
RES.2: [...].
S.Μ.: I don’t remember which […] it was with the Russians, anyway. Don’t ask me about days and dates, because… Nonetheless, it was a very important game, it was Russia-Canada.
RES.2: Right!
S.Μ.: And the tickets had sold out… they had been sold out, but there remained five hundred tickets…
RES.2: For you. For the…
S.Μ.: For the public and they wouldn’t sell those until the day they’d open… in the morning when they… Ourselves, when we closed the restaurant, I took two guys who worked and we went to wait outside the arena…
RES.2: To buy the tickets.
S.Μ.: Come morning, nine in the morning to open the gates to buy the tickets.
RES.2: This is incred… incredible.
S.Μ.: When we went there, I thought there would be no one else. There were another three hundred people ahead of us.
RES.2: My gosh!
S.Μ.: But still is ok, because still there were five hundred tickets left. We have [...] the chance to buy tickets now, right? So… But you are allowed only two tickets person.
RES.2: Per person.
S.Μ.: Per person. And there started a rain and it was raining and we were waiting, but there were Canadians with guitars here, with these, we had fun. We waited nine-ten hours. When the arena finally opened… when the arena opened the… the gates, the crowd was two kilometers away, they were waiting to get tickets. There must have been over five thousand people.
RES.2: Wow!
S.Μ.: We got inside, but the Greek spirit eh!
RES.2: Yes.
S.Μ.: I tell the guys “When you get the ticket, you’ll go to the other one as well… to the other gate and you’ll go to the other gate” and we got around fifteen of those.
RES.2: So, finally you got tickets.
S.Μ.: Oh, yes! Yes.
RES.2: Great.
S.Μ.: And we gave them away. We didn’t sell them, but gave them away to friends, yes.
RES.2: Yes. And did you go?
S.Μ.: I went! Absolutely!
RES.2: And did they win?
S.Μ.: They won. But when the Russians were coming, even though as we said I’m a hundred percent Canadian, but somehow when the Russians came, I supported the Russians in hockey, I don’t know why.
RES.2: Was it the orthodox…?
S.Μ.: Yes!
RES.2: Something…
S.Μ.: I think something… something connected us.
RES.2: Yes.
S.Μ.: Yes. That’s what it was.
RES.2: Were these juniors or professional?
S.Μ.: It was the army that was coming, the Red Army was coming at the time.
RES.2: Ok! So, they probably lost?
S.Μ.: No.
RES.2: : Did they win here?
S.Μ.: We won, I think. I don’t remember.
RES.2: Yes.
S.Μ.: Years.
RES.1: Was there mayhem?
S.Μ.: Mayhem! Mayhem!
RES.1: Was everybody at the arena…?
S.Μ.: Yes, yes, yes.
RES.2: Yes.
RES.1: What did they wear?
S.Μ.: Everybody… eh…
RES.1: Uniforms?
S.Μ.: Yes, uniforms. Everybody was shouting. But now I don’t support the Russians. Now I support the Canadians.
RES.2: Yes.
S.Μ.: Because since my grandson plays hockey as well, I don’t consider it proper to support the Russians and I now support the Canadians and in big games which take place I always used to go… but I remember back then, in order to anger them and stuff, when the Russians did, I was shouting for the… when the Russians scored, I was shouting for the Russians [Laughs].
RES.1: They’re looking towards here. Nice!