Soccer game in Toyota City

On Sunday, I joined some other teachers from Aichi U. (Simon, Angus, Mark & Chrsitine) and went to Toyota City (north-east of Nagoya) to watch a professional soccer game. The local team, Nagoya Grampus (genus of Orca dolphins) was playing the Urawa Reds from Saitama. Here's me next to Angus and Mark outside the stadium (which was used in the World Cup 2002):
There were long line-ups for food and beverages but we were able to stop a friendly beer and snack vendor:
We arrived an hour and a half early, but since we were in the cheap seats, it was already almost full and so our seats were pretty high up:
Here's some shots of the action:
Nagoya was outplayed in the first half and Urawa Reds scored near half time:
Here's some more action:
Here's Angus getting a close up view of the gamea and Simon cheering:
And here's Christine and Mark studying the game intently:
At half time, we were able to spot the mascot for our side, which was a cute Orca with a bow:
Fans were divided into home and away sides. Both teams had red as their main colour. Nagoya fans seemed very friendly in their light red jerseys:
They were also very supportive, although quiet as their team wasn't playing so well:
The Urawa Reds had a much darker colour of red on and they seemed more intimidating. We think that their mascot is Che:
Here's a short video of the crazy Urawa Reds fans in action:

Even thier signs and banners seemed scary:
Although some banners were a bit amusing to me:

While both teams' fans would have special cheers that they would do, they seemed like they would take turns in cheering - very considerate they were. Here's a shot of two guys with drums who were starting off the cheers for our side:
The second half of the game was fairly calm, except for the end when some players got a bit excited after a player was injured:
In the end, the Reds were too strong for our side (they actually won the Asian Champions League in 2007) but it was still a fun experience for me. Hopefully I'll see some more games in the future.