After the ending of press-conference, we talked to Kazakh journalists about a lot of topics. As it was expected, we did not have language obstacle- local journalists speak Russian fluently and they even do not have a light accent. It was surprising that they know about Georgian football much more than we expected them to know. Two of them even have been to Georgia, one of them in the previous match in Kutaisi and the second- several years ago in Rustavi, when “Dinamo” Tbilisi could not manage to go through the Euro tournament.
They knew about Georgian national team and our legendary players a lot of things. They reminded the matches between national teams of Georgia and Kazakhstan 6-7 year ago. As far as you know, at World championship 2006 our teams were fighting in the same group. In the match which was held in Kazakhastan “Crusandars” won 2:1, in Tbilisi they played draw- 0:0. They also reminded Giorgi Demetradze, who scored double against Kazakhstan. They even remembered when Demetradze could not manage to score penalty kick in Tbilisi. They said that, then they were very happy due to gaining the first point.
Kazakh journalists most of all know our legendary players- Aleksandre Chivadze, Davit Kipiani, Ramaz Shengelia and others. By the way they were very sorry when we told that Shengelia died.
It is unquestionable that they are very attentive people. Kazakh colleagues showed us their sights and we tasted local dishes too. By the way, their dishes are very delicious. We also tried local beer with name “Bely Medved”(White bear), to tell the truth their beer are better than ours.
Afterwards, we visited the huge park named after the president Nursultan Nazarbaev, which is full of flowers and lampposts. Besides a beautiful fountain there is a big lake. By the way there are some Georgians, who arrived in this city for finding some job. Among them is one man from Kutaisi, who played for “Aktobe”. He met one of our Georgian colleagues in the street and promised that he will come to this match.
In a word, the city is not fantastic due to lack of natural resources, it even cannot compare with Georgian nature. Mostly hot wind is blowing, which is very unpleasant and it is harmful for health. It was night when we said good-bye to Kazakh colleagues warmly and agreed to meet again before the match. One more thing: after the end of the match, they already were able to say Georgian phrases:-“Carmatebas gisurvebt, magram chven mogigebt” (Good luck, but we will win)… maybe they even thought that it has another meaning..
Irakli Japaridze, special correspondent of “Worldsport.ge) from Aktobe
Photos by Author