For the love of the game #9.1: KAA Gent
It's the third day of our ground-hopping trip through Belgium and Germany. Today we're taking in two matches. The first is a lunchtime kick-off in Ghent.
Prologue
Ghent, Belgium.
William Cody is a long way from home. He grips his Springfield rifle model 1866 tightly in his rough, calloused hands as he sits on the waist-high advertising hoarding that stretches continuously around the pitch.
His rifle is as impotent as a tumbleweed in a tornado. There are no buffalo to shoot here.
William smiles to himself, listening to the crowd chanting his name. ‘Buffalo, Buffalo’ they appear to be calling out as one, over and over. He jumps up onto the hoardings, balancing like a gymnast on a beam. The unseen showman snaps his rifle to his shoulder and takes aim.
Sitting Bull charges in, riding bareback. His war bonnet, an array of tightly bound feathers, shimmering in the midday sun. The crowd gasp in unison and then fall silent for a moment before roaring their approval. They have only read about this in their books and comics.
Buffalo Bill's Wild West is in town.
The day gets off to a bad start. First, the hotel is so busy that we can’t find a table (or even a seat) to sit and eat our breakfast at. Then Darren finds a parking ticket on the front window of his car. It’s clearly a scam though because we parked legally in the hotel car park.
We’re both hanging a bit from a heavy night in Dusseldorf and this is all we need.
It’s a quiet first half an hour as we head West. Our destination this morning is the Belgian port city of Ghent in northwest Belgium, at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers.
We’ve driven past KAA Gent’s stadium half-a-dozen times on previous trips. We have always been determined to go there. Today, Gent are at home, so we’re off to the lunchtime match against the bottom side, Beerschot.
It’s 3 hours by car and the sat-nav sends us up through Holland via Eindhoven and back down into Belgium from the north, close to Antwerp.
Despite the icy conditions (there is a little snow lingering on the verges of the road) Darren makes good time. We’ve stopped at a services along the E35 and taken on some caffeine from a a reluctant coffee machine. It’s like a scene out of Red Dwarf as the stroppy machine refuses to dispense Darren’s coffee, or accept his Euros. I experience no such issues when it is my turn.
Gent’s Planet Group Arena is a modern glass fronted stadium with a contemporary design and aesthetic architecture. In the sunshine, light bounces off the sleek black glass like a glossy metropolis office building.
We visit the club store and I buy a blue and white bobble hat and pin badge. The Gent logo features a Native American in full headdress which is controversial these days to put it mildly.
Inside the stadium, we have to queue up for a charge card to put credit on before we can buy anything. We put 50 euros on the card and get ourselves a coffee and some food.
We both get some chips which are covered in meat and gravy. It is like having the filling from a steak pie ladled on top of the best fries that you could ever wish to eat. Lovely.
The capacity of The Planet Group Arena is just over 20,000, although it looks much bigger than that from the outside. It’s a single tier stadium around a raised hybrid grass pitch. Surrounding the pitch, which feels like it is on an island, is a wide path -about the width of a narrow road.
Despite going behind twice, KAA Gent find a way to win the match, scoring a 90th minute penalty to make it 3-2 in the sunshine. It’s a real family atmosphere and the people around us are friendly.
Today’s win solidifies Gent’s position in the top 6, with just a few games left to go before the league splits into 3 for the play-off season.
We beat the rush back to the car and head off in the direction of our final destination, Brugge.
Epilogue
The crowd have all gone home and the light is fading. Bill lays on his back, staring up at the cobalt sky. A smile creeps across his bearded face. Here, they still shout out his name. Here, they continue to cheer. This he concludes, must be heaven.
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917), known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. His well received visit to Ghent with the Buffalo Bill Wild West show in the early 20th Century inspired the club to take on the ‘Buffaloes’ nickname and controversial Native American logo.