Football in Argentina
I got up at 5am last Tuesday and headed for a place called Luna Park which was selling tickets for the World Cup qualifier game of Argentina VS Paraguay in River Plate stadium here in Buenos Aires to be played Saturday Sep 6th. I was relieved that there were only a couple of hundred people ahead in the queue. After waiting about 90 minutes the ticket windows hadn't even opened. It was a strictly first come, first served affair with max of 3 tickets per person. By some sleight of hand or "Hand of God", the 40 and 50 peso tickets had sold out after 5 minutes - all thirty thousand of them!????? Had a hoard of invisible hooligans descended upon the queue? - Alas no - this was Argentinian 'mafia' economics at work. One ticket for the public, 100 for somebody to sell later an an inflated price - Bienvenidos a Argentina!
Photo: The Chicas
We eventually got pretty decent seats (covered) for 170 pesos each. The 'covered' became especially important as it pissed rain here most of this weekend and the temperature dropped to 3 degrees during the game so it was frikkin' freezing! (at least for Argentina)
About 7 thousand Paraguayans showed up and in some ways reminded me of the Irish as although they were out numbered ten to one by the home crowd, they made themselves heard and even upstaged the Argentinians with their chants and songs. There was a lot of middle finger sign language being exchanged aswell as reciprocal lyric additions of "puto" and "hijo de puto" (son of a bitch) when the oppostions chants were in full flow.
After an early goal that saw the Argentinian keeper stretchered off, the game eventually finished a draw 1-1 which was a fair result. I'd waited a long time to see a football match here and it didn't disappoint.
Tags: River Plate Stadium, Argentina football, Boca Juniors, River Boca, sport
If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates via email or RSS reader (Top Right)
Posts
12 comments:
Meh, the whole mafia thing would get up my nose unless I was benefiting from it. Not a footy fan TBH, but if there are cheerleaders I'll be there with my "American Beauty" T-shirt on. Sounds like a good match though.
I'm jealous.
All I get is the seriously whimpy Ajax-Feyenoord stuff here.
Can't wait to get back to turners cross, if there's still a club to watch...
Oooh fancy tickets eh! I'm not a soccer fan either but there's something about the World Cup that gets everyone enthused and the atmosphere at the actual games is fantastic. I even stayed up uhntil 3am last time to watch the Aussies get hammered by the Italians! Aussies aren't terribly good at singing or chanting but your lot make it a party! First thing Clare did in Brasil was go to a football match - brilliant!
I'm not into sports at all, but I kind of like soccer. A little of topic but in my opinion Argentina "winning" the world cup back in 1978 was not valid due to the massive human rights violations comitted during the dictatorship.
if you keep rubbing us footie fans nose in it...I may have to stop visiting here altogether...it's getting too much to bear.....you lucky *&*$#&$$#!
Excellent. I've been there and done that too!
Sucks about the rain but I'm glad you enjoyed it anyway!
@Thrifty: I´m not a big sports fan either but if there´s enough of a buzz then it´s enjoyable
@Xbox: the UK premiership and it´s european equivalents just don´t do it for me either
@Baino: I went to the Mericanna stadium in Brasil too and it was brilliant
@L o N: That´s not the only controversy about that win - there´s been recent talk of match fixing and preferntial time slots for the Argies
@Shaunj: I still want to see a Boca VS River game - stay tuned!
@VE: Thought you might have alright - I didn´t know you yanks liked "soccer"!
@Megan: The rain made it feel like home
ain't nothing.....I have norn iron and the czech republic behind my house tomorrow night......so I'll be in with the doors locked, curtains closed and 99 dialed on my phone.....
I'm a bit jealous you got to see a match like that. i'm even more jealous you got to see those cheerleaders. If I move to BA, can you get me work! :)
@ Manuel: Go Norn Iron!
@ Matt: You want to be a cheerleader? ;-)
Post a Comment