The Red Eagles of Milsami Orhei

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The attractive young girl beat enthusiastically on the drum. The assistant stood respectfully to one side. I made a mental note to email the Other Half to see if she wanted to apply for an apprentice role in drumming circles. We were watching the Red Eagles of Milsami Orhei set up their display of banners and warm up their musical reportoire.



Seven hours earlier we had been walking the eerie streets of Tiraspol, before making the journey back to Chisinau from Transnistria. The Gara Central Bus Station was it's usual chaotic self, even at 8.30 am on a Sunday morning. The market was in full swing and the shared minibus drivers were touting their next journey. We were massively ahead of schedule and wandered through the mass of activity to the Cosmos Hotel to drop our bags. Saturday night trade had obviously been slow and we were offered our room even at this early hour. Supply exceeded demand. We were recognised, so there was no need for the passport formalties and received the breakfast vouchers for the next 2 days. We had swapped the Transnistrian visa on a slip of paper for another valuable document. We had no time for breakfast in Tiraspol, so found this morning's food in small cafe across the road. The sweet tooth of Ross http://footballtravelswithross.wordpress.com marveled at the chocolate croissant.



We were back at the Bus Station by 10 am to locate the minibus to Orhei. The Orhei section was on the outer edge of the north west side. The driver queried Orhei or Orhei Vecchi? We would not be the first to end up in a small Moldova town looking for a World Heritage monastery that was 15 miles away. I gestured kicking a football and mentioned Milsami. This was understood as we were off to the football. The fare was 23 Lei (about US $ 1.20). The traffic dissipated quickly and we were soon in the northern suburbia of Chisinau. We passed the stadium used by Academia Chisinau, another local incarnation of IKEA and we're soon on the open road. The road conditions were far superior to those en route to Tiraspol - a dual carriageway no less! We pulled off the main road and arrived at the Orhei Bus Station in about 1 hour. A Sunday market was in full swing opposite and the football ground was a mere 5 minute walk round the corner.





There was limited activity at the Stadium Complexul Sportiv Raional. A lone policeman loitered outside the main entrance. He transpired to be waiting for some family members and was off duty. The ground was locked up, but we knew we were in the right place. The game was advertised on the gates on the far side of the ground - Milsami versus Dinamo Auto. Kick off 1400 hours. It was about 11.30 am, so we had time to kill. We went looking for sepia people in the town centre. As well as the Bus Station market another was competing for the Sunday morning trade. It was unbelievably busy. The townsfolk were a bit more cooperative than those in Tiraspol, where the camera mainly brought a scowl. The long lense would have been handy in Orhei. We emerged on to the main street, where a number of additional stalls were set up. I recognised a girl from the bus, who was selling cosmetics brought from the big city - Chisinau. One stall was emblazoned with Avon. Avon calling Moldova!



The main square was dominated by a statue of Vasile Lupu, leader of the then Moldova for 20 years from 1634. The Town Hall was behind. There was little activity along this stretch, although all but the banks were open. As with Tiraspol, the food and beverage opportunities looked sparse. The golden domes of St Dimutru Church caught my attention further down the street. It was fortunate, as it highlighted the couple of restaurant options on route. The only hotel option, Cordru, has an attached restaurant but that looked closed. I climbed the steps to the smaller Vladimir Orthodox Church. The steps were loose and uneven. The same builder who had been on the Sheriff Stadium might well have been on the case. The house next door looked like a bit of maintenance was due - the chimney was in bits, but it was good to see that the satellite TV dish was looking pristine. There was little to see beyond the golden domes, so we headed inside one of the restaurants for lunch. It was 90% occupied. The favoured Sunday lunch in Orhei - pizza. If you can't beat them join them. It wasn't the greatest, but I was hungry and there was no real alternative. We whiles away an hour or so using the free wi-fi and then set off for the match.



The reason for our visit - FC Milsami Orhei - current champions of Moldova. A few blogs ago in 2014, whilst planning a trip to Malta, I discovered that Moldova was one of the few leagues where football attendances were lower. I speculated on cheap flights to Chisinau - and here were are. £28 each way. Cheers Wizzzair. The hype surrounding all that investment in Tiraspol the day before had been surpassed by a small town club from the provinces outside Chisinau. The local Orhei club - Viitorrul - had been purchased by Ilan Shor in 2010. The 29 year old businessman of a Moldovan Jewish family, who had emigrated to Israel in the 1970s, renamed the club Milsami. The business interests of Mr Shor seem to get a mixed review, but whatever the truth he has made a significant investment in the club playing staff that has been sufficient to tip Moldovan football upside down. In between marrying a Russian pop princess and becoming Mayor of Orhei, his team have won the championship, competed beyond the first round in the Champions League and only narrowly been beaten by France's St Etienne in the Europa League. The ground is somewhat less developed than the playing squad and compromises of a single stand of seats. The pitch is surrounded by a spartan running track in old socialist style and a forlorn basketball court sits behind one goal.



The Red Eagles had gathered at a bar in the town and headed down the road just before kick off. There was no major rush for the turnstiles - simply because there was no turnstile to be found. Free entry. My sort of club. The crowd steadily built up. It was clearly a place to be proud in Orhei. The listed crowd was 1800, more than that the previous day in Tiraspol - not one free ticket to the military to bolster the numbers either. Dinamo Auto failed to bring even 1 away fan, as far as I could see. Despite the free entry, a number bizarrely chose to watch through the fence on the far side. A number chose to watch from the roof of a block of flats. The Red Eagles gathered next to us. We walked on to the running track to take photographs. The steward made no attempt to intervene and had little interest. We stood next to the organiser of the Red Eagles. It is quite common for some of these groups to be a bit protective on their image and taking pictures of their members. He seemed quite content and merely asked whether he could communicate with us in Russian. He shook us by the hand and left the language barrier to get in the way of further queries as to who we were. The attractive young lady caught the attention with the drum. We were joined by a Wandering Fox. He was exiled from the miracles being performed by Claudio in King Power land by a stint of employment in Moscow. In between watching Lokomotiv Moscow, he was getting a football fix in all parts east. Wandering Fox had also been to Sheriff the previous day. We had all ironically stayed at the Cosmos in Chisninau, where we had spent so little time that we had missed some of the other residents - no less than some members of the foreign mercenary player brigade of Milsami Orhei. The delights of the Cordru Hotel were not good enough for them.



The football itself was even less exciting than at Sheriff, if that was possible. Dinamo Auto had come to "park the bus" . All 11 men behind the ball for all 90 minutes - well 52 actually, when it became 10 men behind the ball after Tofan got a red card. He chose the really long walk, by deciding to try sitting on the bench on the far side before the ref pointed out the error to him. Dinamo were lucky to still have 10 men, after the centre back tried an upper cut on a Milsami player. The officials had not gone to Specsavers recently. Milsami didn't have the quality to break them down despite throwing the proverbial kitchen sink. It was a long way to go for a 0-0 draw. I usually prefer the home side to be victorious. Half way through the 2nd half, I had stopped caring - any goal would have been welcome. The drum continued to beat. The Red Eagles sang on. The game petered out. We accompanied Wandering Fox back to the bus station. He was on a mission in Romany circles on northern Moldova. We found our transport back to Chisinau.





Appendix 1

Moldova Divizia Nationala

Sunday 6 March 2016 @ 1400 Hours

Venue: Stadium Complexul Sportiv Raional







Milsami Orhei 0 - 0 Dinamo Auto




Attendance: 1,800



Milsami: R Mitu, A Rakhmanov, A Rhaili, P Racu, V Bolohan, E Zarichnyuk, D Rassulov, I Banovic, A Cojocari, E Sidorenco, R Surdu Subs: C Gheti (77). A Antoniuc (74), G Andronic (83)



Dinamo Auto: A Zveaghintev, D Ilescu, A Scripcenco, V Invanov, D Pisla, V Truhanov, A Tofan, A Cheptine, V Modrac, C Mandricenco, A Bugneac Subs: S Bobrov (90)

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Photos

Wandering Fox
A Red Eagle for the day .... waving the flag in honour of the Orhei / Leicester friendship pact! European brothers 2016 / 2017.