Let me preface by stating that the tickets were a birthday gift from my girlfriend Lisa. She went all out getting us field level seats. Just as a side note ladies, you can't go wrong buying sporting event tickets for your man. I often hear you ladies complain how hard it is to find a gift for your man, but really it's quite simple, find out what teams he follows and surprise him with some ducats.

	Skydome was transformed into a true soccer pitch.

I was a little skeptical about how well Skydome would serve as host to a soccer game but after seeing all the natural sod they laid down on the stadium floor coupled with over 50,000 people in attendance it turned out to be a perfect experience. When you purchased tickets for the game you were given an option to sit with the AS Roma supporters, the Celtic supporters or as a neutral observer. We sat with the Roma supporters for the game for three reasons one, because I'm a fan of Totti, two, because my girlfriend is Italian and three, we were in Toronto, home to Canada's biggest Italian community, so I kinda wanted to cheer on the home side. I absolutely loved the comments that came from the section especially in admiration of Roma and Italian national team defender Cristian Panucci. Every few minutes you would hear things like, "Ah Panucci, look at Panuch. He's a gooda one. He is sucha gooda player." (Writing an Italian accent is much harder than doing one in person, so just give the benefit of doubt on this one.) As for dividing up tickets to separate supporters it is common hat in Europe and Latin America; it's done as a means to survival for fans. Mixing competing English soccer fans would be like giving Jessica Simpson a math problem; either way you know it's not going to end well. But I really believe this whole idea of segregating fans on the basis of their allegiance needs to carry over to other sports. It wouldn't be that difficult to adopt in North American sports because we have already gotten a head start on segregation by separating the rich from the average fan by way of high-ticket prices. This especially needs to happen when the two teams in action are bitter rivals. How great would it to see the Corel Centre divided with distinct Leaf and Sens fans?

To the neutral observer completely unfamiliar with both squads, Totti would have easily stood out. He simply dominated the game and like any superstar each time he took possession of the ball much was expected and most of the time he delivered upon expectations whether by way of a clever deke, a deft pass, a cheeky flick or a booming shot, Totti simply made things happen. On the Celtic side of things, the team played with a workmanlike effort in lieu of having a world-class talent like Totti, they relied on strong team play, and persistent effort. If the Celtic soccer team were a girl you would describe them as having a "great personality". No one epitomizes the Celtic team as much as forward John Hartson. If you've never seen Hartson, he looks like he stepped right out of a pub on King Or Front Street and started playing; hardly built in the mold of an athlete. Think a thinner King Kong Bundy.

	Francesco Totti's goal made the Roma supporters happy.

Another thing I noticed was that the fans from both sides carried out the characteristics of the teams they supported. For instance virtually all of the Celtic players had shaved heads or closely cropped hairstyles, as did the fans. The Roma fans followed in the footsteps of the players and donned the long salon style greased hairstyle. You know the kind of hairstyle that automatically gets you inundated with the "Gino" label. One big knock on Italian football is the flair for the dramatic. I mean every time a Celtic player challenged a Roma player they dove, as the British would say they had a real tendency to go to ground. Someone please explain to me the "magical spray" they give to players. I know it's just a freezing spray but judging by its effects you would think they bottled up the same magical healing powers our Moms had when we were little kids and got hurt. If this is the case, then why didn't Roma just bring over a big contingent of Nonnas and cut out the middleman. The Celtic players managed to hold up a little better and on the rare occasion a Celtic player went down I'm pretty sure the trainer just brought them out a pint to raise their spirits.

I didn't know this but if a ball is kicked into the stands you have to give it back. I thought okay maybe it's a general rule of thumb, like tipping the waiter/waitress at least 15%. On a side note if actresses are now called actors, then are waitresses called waiters? Can I get a ruling on this? Am I going to offend a female food server if I call her a waiter? Anyways they're not kidding about this giving back the ball rule. There was a ball kicked into our section and the guy who caught it opted to keep it. When the event staff came by the section to retrieve the ball it was a true impromptu moment of coordinated comedy, if that makes sense. When the event staff attendant asked for the ball the entire section stood up on cue and half the section pointed to the left and the other half pointed the ball went to the right. After getting nowhere event security staff was brought in to scour the aisle and was greeted with a reaction normally reserved for a guy who stole a foul ball away from a kid. I'm not sure what happened to the ball but if you do happen to find yourself in the same situation and want to keep the ball just remember that the whole section has got your back. It's tough to find that kind of loyalty in this day and age.

I went to the game wanting to match it up to the experience of a North American sporting event and drawing a comparison to hockey in particular I found a real difference. The best way I can explain it is that hockey is a like a sitcom with a laugh track essentially telling you when you should laugh. A live hockey experience is full of methods to artificially generate noise such as video prompts, decibel readers, piped in music and other cheesy gimmicks like Kiss cams; it all comes across as very forced. Soccer relies on natural fan emotion and it makes for a more pure and genuine fan experience. Soccer is like Curb Your Enthusiasm; it credits the viewer with knowing and choosing when to laugh and for that reason I'd recommend everyone to witness a live soccer game once.