Superclasico = Insanity
As I mentioned in my last post, today we went to the Superclasico. It is a soccer match pitting Buenos Aires two major soccer teams, the Boca Juniors vs. River Plate. As a little background, the two teams reside in much different parts of the city. La Boca is seedy, rough part of the city while River Plate is more on the high end. The game was at River Plate´s stadium. A very minimalistic, no frills stadium.
We boarded the bus with Steven and Carlin, a pretty cool couple from Ireland. Upon arriving at the stadium, you could instantly feel the energy and excitement. We went right in to the stadium 1 1/2 hours before kickoff. The stadium was already packed and the chanting was nonstop. Upon arriving at our seats, I noticed that they had 3 sections upstairs for the Boca Juniors fans. They were completely separated from the rest of the stadium and were held in by barbed wire fence. ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. There were ZERO Boca fans in any other part of the stadium. The fans were going completely crazy, yelling obscenities, and making obscene gestures at each other. Police presence was extremely high. It was more intense than any rivalry game I have ever attended. These people are extremely passionate/ crazy about there soccer. It was like Red Sox- Yankees after every fan in the stadium drank 8 Red Bulls.
River Plate ended up winning the game 3-1 to the delight of the home crowd. After the game, the Boca fans began to throw their seats from the upper deck on the River Plate fans and set fires in the stadium, all while chanting. Than, they closed off the exits from the River Plate sections while they slowly let the Boca fans leave. We were in our seats until at least 1 hour after the game as the Boca fans slowly left the stadium. They do this to avoid the two teams fans from meeting after the game.
It was a wild time and an experience unlike anything I have ever seen. What a great time. As for tonight, I just got back from dinner and am going to take it easy and try to get a good nights sleep. Hope all is well back home.
We boarded the bus with Steven and Carlin, a pretty cool couple from Ireland. Upon arriving at the stadium, you could instantly feel the energy and excitement. We went right in to the stadium 1 1/2 hours before kickoff. The stadium was already packed and the chanting was nonstop. Upon arriving at our seats, I noticed that they had 3 sections upstairs for the Boca Juniors fans. They were completely separated from the rest of the stadium and were held in by barbed wire fence. ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. There were ZERO Boca fans in any other part of the stadium. The fans were going completely crazy, yelling obscenities, and making obscene gestures at each other. Police presence was extremely high. It was more intense than any rivalry game I have ever attended. These people are extremely passionate/ crazy about there soccer. It was like Red Sox- Yankees after every fan in the stadium drank 8 Red Bulls.
River Plate ended up winning the game 3-1 to the delight of the home crowd. After the game, the Boca fans began to throw their seats from the upper deck on the River Plate fans and set fires in the stadium, all while chanting. Than, they closed off the exits from the River Plate sections while they slowly let the Boca fans leave. We were in our seats until at least 1 hour after the game as the Boca fans slowly left the stadium. They do this to avoid the two teams fans from meeting after the game.
It was a wild time and an experience unlike anything I have ever seen. What a great time. As for tonight, I just got back from dinner and am going to take it easy and try to get a good nights sleep. Hope all is well back home.
posted by hkalin @ 10:28 PM
2 Comments:
At 8:17 AM,
Todd said…
That's awesome! Too bad Boca didn't win though, I am thoroughly disappointed in my favorite Argentine soccer team. I will be throwing my jersey in the trash as soon as I'm done typing this.
Have a blast on the rest of the trip. Recoleta is incredible, glad you were able to make it there. Now go have some dulce de leche for me.
At 10:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
Sounds awesome? Did you show them that OSU fans are good at setting fires too? Glad you got tickets, how difficult was it? Also, reading your last post I was wondering what happened in the hours between dinner and 4 AM.
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