Cavese: Beyond 90 minutes — Terrace Edition

Words: Imma Rhamely Borrelli

Images: Imma Rhamely Borrelli

An emotional evening at the Stadio Simonetta Lamberti in Cava de Tirreni, for the First Round of the Coppa Italia Serie C: Cavese vs Trapani.

Cavese is the team of the city of Cava de Tirreni, in the province of Salerno, not far from the famous Amalfi coast. Founded in 1919, its fans are among the hottest in the Campania region. They also played in Serie B in the 80s, then last season went up from Serie D to Serie C.

Football Club Trapani 1905, better known as Trapani, is an Italian football club based in the city of Trapani. initially founded as Unione Sportiva Trapanese, it was the third football club to be created in Sicily. It plays in Serie C, but has participated in Serie B five times in the 2000s.

I start with a premise that is important to me, which wants to honour the Trapani fans for their presence at this evening with an excellent and incessant performance.

Despite the difference in numbers with the home fans, it is right to thank them for their willingness to let me get closer to their sector since it is our first meeting, and apologize to them if I will go on and on instead talking about Cavese, but I have some reasons that I hope to tell as best as possible.

Imma Rhamely Borrelli. Cavajuoli. Cavese 1919 vs FC Trapani 1905.

Tonight I am literally hungry for curiosity, because knowing this fan base I expect something engaging. All this anxious waiting, however, is fueled by two not insignificant factors, which obviously concerns the cheering in the stands.

The first is that this evening the reference figure for the fans of the Cavese curve, Antonio “Maradona”, is returning.

Without getting involved in legal matters: nine months of waiting for a distrust “without sufficient evidence" and a criminal case pronounced in his favour, a few days before the first home game, already say enough.

The positive energy that can be felt in the stands is uncontainable. I don't watch the game on the ground much, the attention is all for both sets of fans.

At the end of the match, the result on the field sees the visiting team victorious, a great satisfaction for the many kilometers done to support their own team, but the Cavese fans also have reason to celebrate, having seen those who, in years of experience and presence, had earned the honour and burden of the megaphone return to their place.

©Imma Rhamely Borrelli/ Terrace Edition. Granata. FC Trapani 1905 at Cavese 1919.

And also on this occasion, in one of his speeches at the beginning of the year addressed to the players on the field, he was able to ask with heavy and dense words - as a good poet of the curve - to fight for that shirt, with the same pride of those who defend it in the stands.

And, speaking of support, the memory of Mrs. Carmela Vergati, a key figure for the Cavese fans, about a month after her passing, is the second reason for my anticipation for this evening.

Mrs. Carmela's story is a story of faith and belonging to Cavese that literally lasts a lifetime.

I had the honour of meeting her on the occasion of the Cavese promotion party in Serie C last April

©Imma Rhamely Borrelli/ Terrace Edition. Mrs. Carmela. (April 2024)

"She is a piece of history for these fans" they told me when I photographed her.

Wow, I thought. A woman and a fan: she went to the stadium, and played the drum, and had a season ticket on Sundays, she went to away games and held smoke bombs in her hand and sang the choruses. At 91, she went to the stadium until the end. Fantastic.

"No one dies as long as they live in the hearts of those who remain" and like all the best fan bases, Cavese does not forget those who will always be there. Her memory was very emotional.

There are occasions when the ultras passion goes beyond the colors, overcomes the containment networks and arrives in all its inebriating strength, on evenings like this where the values become universal. And this is one of those times when I find myself speaking from the heart, without paying attention to the colours.