Last night we went to see a professional soccer game. Although we couldn't go see my favorite Chilean team, Colo-Colo, we did go see my dad's team, La Catolica. I know of 3 main soccer teams here in Santiago and it seems like everyone is a fan of one of them. The fans here take this game really seriously. That might be the understatement of the year! For example, my 8 year old cousin, Tal (Uri's son) is a Colo-Colo fanatic. You can talk to him about professional soccer like he was an adult and when Colo-Colo sold three of their best players to other leagues, he was literally in tears, worried about how the team will survive the next season! I'm sure there were lots of adults here that reacted the same way and shared his feelings.
The La Catolica game wasn't the best soccer game I've ever seen but you can't help but cheer for them when a few thousand fans are singing, non-stop, the entire game. There was an entire section closed off by barbed wire fencing to contain the 'fanatics.' The songs seem to be orchestrated as they changed songs in unison and they even cursed the referee in unison. Imagine thousands of people all of a sudden calling the ref a "son of a $%#@" at the same time. (We tried to upload a short video in this post of the fans but Blogger couldn't handle it.) If you are a fan of the opposing team you either have to keep quiet or you have to buy your ticket in a different section. T
he opposing team's fan section is enclosed by barbed wire fence, separated by an empty section on both sides. One side borders the expensive seats (on the shady side of the stadium, costs 20,000 pesos - about $33) and the other side borders the cheap seats (in the sun - costs 8,000 pesos, about $13 - guess where we sat). On the side of the cheap seats there were two rows of police dressed in riot gear placed along the length of rows from top to bottom. Not sure if you can see it from the pictures but there were about 25 fans from the opposing team, Cobresal, at this game. Some were actually even wearing the team colors - I thought that took a lot of guts. La Catolica scored in the first half and it appeared the game would end with a 1-0 win for them. Unfortunately, La Catolica made a terrible defensive mistake and allowed Cobresal to tie the game with only about 10 minutes left to play. When Cobresal made the goal the entire stadium went silent except for the 25 or so Cobresal fans who went nuts. The whole team rushed 
over to their section to celebrate. It was kind of funny.Sheri, of course, was expecting to have a beer at the game - but there's no way any alcohol can ever be served at these games. The fans are already super hyped up, adding alcohol into the mix would be major trouble. The only drink being served was soda.
It was good that Cobresal wasn't really a rival. If they were playing Colo-Colo, I hear things possibly wouldn't have been so civil.
tio, As always la catolica is almost win the game,,,,,jjjjjjj
ReplyDeletenot like colo colo that always win, ask Tal