Pats' Kazakhi nightmare
Credit:
Who remembers the scene in Family Guy where they depict ‘A day in the life of an Irishman’? Or when Homer Simpson dangles a leprechaun in his right hand and asks him to ‘sing us a song from the Emerald Isle’ before saying ‘Tis like the singing of the angels themselves’ in an awful Irish accent? Or worse again, when Sports Illustrated’s front cover had a picture of Eamonn Coghlan with the heading of ‘Begorrah’?
Plenty of proud Irishmen take offence to those stereotypical references from abroad, which means it was surprising last week when every mention of the Saints’ second round encounter, after defeating IBV, was Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat.
Of course, few of us know much about Kazakhstan but it must be quite disrespectful when even players are saying ‘they thought it was just a place from the film’. (Plus, talking in that ridiculous accent might have worked for Cohen, but it’s just not funny coming from people living in Inchicore or Rialto.)
Indeed, it becomes an even touchier subject when you consider Pats are going to have such a logistical nightmare getting to the Asian border and back this week. Pete Mahon expressed his concern after yesterday’s 2-2 draw with Dundalk, and other clubs around the country certainly don’t envy their task this week.
It will take four flights and what Mahon describes as a minimum of sixteen hours to get there, it’s a four day trip and to cap things off, three players have had to pay for people to cover their jobs so they can make the trip – loyalty of that level towards the club must be commended. Nor did Mahon have an answer as to why sides from Kazakhstan are allowed to compete in UEFA tournaments seeing as, geographically, most of the country is outside of the continent.
Yet the prospects of the trip get even worse when complaints from FC Koper, who Karagandy conquered in the first round, are considered regarding the condition of their hotel with even some arguing that the team were food poisoned. Karagandy won 3-2 on aggregate, after coming from behind to win 2-1 at home. There is no conclusive evidence whether their food was poisoned or if it was sour grapes on the Slovenian team’s part, but Pats are taking no chances.
Instead of staying in Karagandy, they will be staying in the country’s capital, Astana, which is over two hours away from Karagandy. Mahon said “it’s not the greatest place on God’s earth and we’re going to try and keep away from there apart from the game.”
Pats are due to leave at lunchtime on Tuesday for the game on Thursday afternoon, and will return on Sunday. The Saints boss was also eager to praise Pat Fenlon yesterday after Bohemians agreed to postpone their league clash scheduled for the weekend due to the inconvenient nature of Pats’ trip.
They will be going into a cauldron at the Shakhter Stadium too, with well over 10,000 locals expected to be out in force for the game.
Plenty of proud Irishmen take offence to those stereotypical references from abroad, which means it was surprising last week when every mention of the Saints’ second round encounter, after defeating IBV, was Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat.
Of course, few of us know much about Kazakhstan but it must be quite disrespectful when even players are saying ‘they thought it was just a place from the film’. (Plus, talking in that ridiculous accent might have worked for Cohen, but it’s just not funny coming from people living in Inchicore or Rialto.)
Indeed, it becomes an even touchier subject when you consider Pats are going to have such a logistical nightmare getting to the Asian border and back this week. Pete Mahon expressed his concern after yesterday’s 2-2 draw with Dundalk, and other clubs around the country certainly don’t envy their task this week.
It will take four flights and what Mahon describes as a minimum of sixteen hours to get there, it’s a four day trip and to cap things off, three players have had to pay for people to cover their jobs so they can make the trip – loyalty of that level towards the club must be commended. Nor did Mahon have an answer as to why sides from Kazakhstan are allowed to compete in UEFA tournaments seeing as, geographically, most of the country is outside of the continent.
Yet the prospects of the trip get even worse when complaints from FC Koper, who Karagandy conquered in the first round, are considered regarding the condition of their hotel with even some arguing that the team were food poisoned. Karagandy won 3-2 on aggregate, after coming from behind to win 2-1 at home. There is no conclusive evidence whether their food was poisoned or if it was sour grapes on the Slovenian team’s part, but Pats are taking no chances.
Instead of staying in Karagandy, they will be staying in the country’s capital, Astana, which is over two hours away from Karagandy. Mahon said “it’s not the greatest place on God’s earth and we’re going to try and keep away from there apart from the game.”
Pats are due to leave at lunchtime on Tuesday for the game on Thursday afternoon, and will return on Sunday. The Saints boss was also eager to praise Pat Fenlon yesterday after Bohemians agreed to postpone their league clash scheduled for the weekend due to the inconvenient nature of Pats’ trip.
They will be going into a cauldron at the Shakhter Stadium too, with well over 10,000 locals expected to be out in force for the game.
About Alan Smith
Alan Smith works as a sub-editor for the Guardian newspaper in London. Originally from Cork, he freelances for several other newspapers and websites. Follow him on twitter @alansmith90. View Full Profile