15 Comments
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Rodney Sample's avatar

1000 percent agree. This is one of the best stories I’ve read all year. Captivating to hear the experiences from different levels of the club. Really rooting for them all to be successful.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thanks for reading!

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Dan Bensky's avatar

Wonderful article. A good reminder why people should subscribe.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thanks! Stories like this were one of the things I envisioned when I started the site. Figure you can't ask for people to pay to subscribe unless you're doing stuff like this.

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Jamie Fessenden's avatar

Great story Grant - made my Friday night even better.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thank you!

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Mike Levitt's avatar

Great story! Between the interesting characters and the beautiful city, seems like they would make a great subject for a Sunderland Til I Die show.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

That's a great point. I wonder if the club would consider participating in something like that?

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Mike Levitt's avatar

Did you see their game today? Unreal. Scored in first minute then played most of the game with 10 players. Goalie stood on his head. Finally gave one up. Had 2 on 1 in last minute but screwed it up. Thanks to you, I gotta figure out how to watch Serie B next year 😕

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Matthew J Cardillo's avatar

Great stuff. Must get to Venezia.....with my wife.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thanks! Venice really is beautiful. The crazy thing for me was that at first I felt like I was in some Las Vegas version of Venice. And I had to remind myself that, no, this was the actual Venice, not some theme park. Then right after I was in Venice I went to Doha, where they literally have a fake Venice with canals in The Pearl section of Doha.

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Terry Mark's avatar

Loved this feature in particular, right up there with the Catarina Macario and Sheriff Tiraspol stories for storytelling and just leaving the reader feeling like you're in that place for the interview or the game.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thank you! It really was a unique experience attending a soccer match in Venice. Would encourage fans to do it, even if Venezia is in the second division next season.

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DR's avatar

Loved this one, Grant. And those kits are truly beautiful.

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Grant Wahl's avatar

Thanks! I bought some black Venezia uniform shorts at the team store in town. Wear them all the time for workouts.

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