International friendly

Spent the evening with a 7 other members of the team at the local Aviva stadium for an international friendly against Turkey. The Irish lost 2-1 but it was still a neat match to watch. We actually went early on and saw a portion of the junior final then went back to the hotel for a break. I went on a nice little jog around Dublin followed up shortly with a 20 minute recharge nap before heading back down to the main game.

The excessive 'proactive' crowd management was interesting at the stadium, something you don't notice much back home. Changing the way individuals move through a facility apparently has something to do with how they react after a bad match. The sheer number of guards surrounding the Turkish fans was impressive, I don't think any were more than an arms length away from one another. On the way out we were funneled through a well thought out maze of gates, doors and guards to get to the DART.

Turkish fans with flares (Photo: http://navyskier.blogspot.ie/)