A student from France wrote in to say that he hopes his team beats mine tonight. I have to wonder what kind of a genius scheduled the Ukrainian team to play at the stadium in the city that is the most hostile to the national team in the entire country. The poor idiots in the Donetsk area have been brainwashed into becoming pathetic Russian wannabes. This is why they hate the Ukrainian team and everything Ukrainian. I have many relatives in that are and I can tell you that it’s a very sad, miserable place.
This is what the commentary on the BBC site says:
There are a lot of empty seats in the Donbass Arena. It has been a sadly familiar sight during this competition.
Rain or no rain, we all knew people were not going to come support the national team in this stupid city. But they support and root for their own hometown team where the billionaire gangster who owns the city bought a bunch of foreign players and staffed the team with them. Idiots.
I still hope we cream those Frenchmen.
P.S. Now the game has been suspended because of the rain.
Clarissa's Blog 
Aren’t you from Donetsk area too? May I ask, which city?
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I’m from Kharkov. But my mother’s side of the family lives in Donetsk, Gorlovka, Artemovsk. I was born in Lugansk but I was taken away three days after being born.
The game has restarted.
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The Guardian rules: “Terrible play from Nazarenko who dawdles so long in possession he could be an Ireland player.”
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We are losing 0:2.
Good thing I have graded that French student’s midterm already. (JOKE.)
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I told my mother Re empty seats and her 1st comment – “Think how much the tickets for international match cost” and I think it’s the main reason. The entire area is very poor. So poor that some of our neighbors bought flour to bake bread themselves (because of money, not love of baking). So poor that many of acquaintances didn’t feel they had money to send a letter to us (and it wasn’t only since they understood we left forever). So poor that before we left children started going door to door to ask for potatoes or bread.
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You think nothing changed since you emigrated? It isn’t the nineties any longer. Anybody who doesn’t mind working lives well.
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1st – I heard that in our small town things were still not well a few years ago (<4)
2nd – Live well relatively =/= buying tickets to international game
In Israel f.e. even middle middle class people would find going to opera (cheapest seats) extremely costy. I suspect those international game tickets were relatively more costy.
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They fill out those seats whenever Shakhter is playing, though.
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