Another historical moment in the Chug Games (as called by locals) came to fruition in the first match up featuring a non-Romanian beer pitted against a national stalwart. Despite insightful and influential advice from a wise owl, the Planning Committee ultimately decided in favor of allowing a few “foreign” beers to go through the qualifying regimen in order to help round out the roster and provide a sense of realism reflecting some actual market conditions on the Romanian brewski scene.

One of the first to qualify was the much-snubbed Skol, first brewed in 1959, which joined Group H in the set’s season opener against lauded Silva, a bere blonda which proudly proclaims itself to be “Genuine Traditional Beer” (da, in Engleza, surprisingly). The favored domestic beer showed up in its trademark white uniform with black & red highlights and brandishing two gold medals it won from a dubious small town near Targu Mureş waaaaay back in 1848 and 1934. Meanwhile, Skol showed up in red and gold outfits boldly offering fans the chance to win “9999$” which we can only assume means a buck shy of USD$10K. Of course, derisive fans waving Silva flags were quick to jibe that folks only buy Skol in hopes of winning enough money so they can “afford a better beer!”

What may not be known to many beer aficionados is that Team Skol is owned by The Carlsberg Group and managed by international powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi (uh huh, they’re twins). Interestingly, Skol’s freshness is supposed to be valid for 6 months, but in Romania the bottles are clearly labelled for 12 months validity. No doubt some of the hostility for this so-called “Value for Money” brand derives from the disrepectful way in which Romanians are expected to suffer with older beer than other nations who sell Skol with more freshness.

Alright, people, let’s drop the sportsradio chatter about factoids and statistics: it’s game time!

Once again, the well-respected referee Spammy was on hand to oversee the opening kick-off inside the closed-roof of the BraşoDome as the rain fell by the bucketfull outside. After an initial scuffle, Silva controlled the ball for majority of the first 10 minutes of play passing back and forth, frustrating the Skol team. Silva masterfully set the pace for domination with it’s slightly-hoppy tones that lingered just after swallows to drill the black and white into the net. GOAL!

The enthusiasm of the Romanian witnesses was overwhelming; they erupted into a chanting session. “Pa pa, Skol! Pa pa, bere rau! Pa pa, Skol!” The Silva mascot on the sidelines worked the audience into a furor and got most of the entire stadium doing the wave. But things got a little borderline obscene when the jumbotron focused on five rather portly fans who proceded to lift their shirts up and reveal the Silva letters painted on their ample guts in an around matted fur.

And then it happened.

Just before the half, Skol took the wind out of Bucureşti’s sails with an fairly decent use of a relatively good earthy flavoring to pound in a score, silencing the crowds. It was immediately challenged by the Silva staff, but after instant reply the judges upheld the decision down on the field. GOAL!

The halftime performance was an unusual hiphop-inspired breakbeat jam session from the normally wonderful mix of house and chill on Beat Blender, broadcast by groovy online streaming specialist SomaFM. The slammin’ vibes kept the crowd entertained without disturbing the entire neighborhood. Event organizers decided that with the subsiding rain (and despite cool weather) that the BraşoDome should partially open up into a balcon-style arrangement.

During the second half, each team worked the tasting fields back and forth in a gallant display of determination while encased in frozen beer mugs much to the delight of the judges who tilted their heads back a goodly number of times as part of their due diligence to determine the intricate specialness of each team. Spammy noticed that the officials were getting a little sloppy as they were increasingly unable to find substantial differences between the two competitors whom each had an interesting flavor to bring to the table.

With the crowd on the edge of their seats, resting on pins and needles, and clinging to a faint sense of hope for a miracle, Silva suddenly broke down field to shoot on goal with their fruity nose, but the ball went just wide of the mark. After only a minute, Silva whizzed across the grass yet again, this time trying to score a point based on superior alcohol content, but it just wasn’t quite enough to overpower the defense. Just seconds before the end of the session, the gold and red uniforms blazed a beeline for the opposing net and confused their domestic opponents with a cost differential move and planted some leather in the corner pocket. GOAL!

Stunned by the last minute upset, angry fans stormed the officiating booth and tried to start a riot but the jandarmeria put down their gogoaşi and came to the rescue, flailing the people with batons like a scene straight out of a WTO meeting.

Final score: Skol 2 – Silva 1

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Mondial Bere '06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.