Boca Juniors

Before I write this I would like to let you all know I am not Americanist, but just go with me on this one. Freedom of Speech and all that.....

After only a few hours sleep I got up and bought myself a ticket for the Boca Juniors game, on Sunday afternoon, against Banfield. It was another trip run out of the hostel so the over-inflated price included transport too and from the game. Whilst I was waiting to leave I had a looked around the room to see who else was going. There was an odd mix, as you usually get with this type of trip, but I was slightly surprised to see a group of Americans who didn´t know the first thing about football.

Americans going to a "soccer" game? Surely that can´t be right? Oh My God. Now I love football. I really really love it, and I love going to watch live football, wherever it is. For me, going to see a South American football game whilst I am here will be one of the highlights of my trip, even if it is a 0-0 draw, and I had no intention of having this experince ruined. The people I went with didn´t even know what it was. For a start they called it "soccer". Soccer? It´s football. F O O T B A L L. Two of the American girls had been and bought out of date Centenary Boca T-shirts so they could fit in. Unbelievable.

So we left the hostel at 2.30pm and arrived at the ground an hour before kick off. When we got off the coach I noticed these enormous fans, who all had the Diego mullet. They were the Boca Hooligans, just chatting outside the ground. Apparently they charge 10 pesos a person to protect them during the game. They left us alone though.

Our seats were on the top tier, of three, opposite Diego´s box, halfway between the penalty box and the halfway line. When we entered the section I hung back from the hostel group, mainly because I didn´t want to be sat with American girls who knew nothing about football. I had seen a group of English guys so I went and sat next to one of them, saying it was a relief that they were English and how I didn´t want to sit next to people who had no idea what was going on. No sooner as I said that I noticed a familiar accent from the seats behind us. "Gee, this is neat". Help!

I listened to some of their discussions with one of the guys from the hostel.

"Do you know if the USA are in the World Cup?"
"Yes, they are."
"Really? I didn´t know that."

No shit sherlock.

And, "So, how long does each game go on for?"

Thank the Lord that they hadn´t even heard of the offside rule, let alone expect an explanation that they could understand.

The best bit was this though;

"So, where do the hooligans sit?"
"Over there, in the middle tier, behind the goal. We saw some of them outside."
"Do you think we can get closer to them? Would we be safe over there?"

The English guys and I just looked at each other in disbelief.

It was obvious what the guy´s reply was.

Anyway, (and more importantly) onto the football itself. Before each Argentinian league game kicks off the two respective youth teams play each other. This is a lot better then the normal tripe that happens before football games (X-Factor winners, Fame Academy winners, Lennox Lewis etc etc). However, I was more interested in what was going on in the hooligans end. They were busy putting up all the banners and flags. Now by this I mean they weren´t just stood there waving them. Two or three people had literally scaled the fences between the tiers as they precariously tied the banners on. Some of them would then abseil down them onto the tier below so they could secure the other end. You can see what I mean in these pictures.

After the youth game had finished (Boca lost 2-1) these cheerleaders came out to do their thing in front of the crowd. They didn´t really seem to know what was going on, and they certainly weren´t choreographed, but they provided the crowd with a lot of ammunition. As the crowd chanted "Puta! Puta" (Whore! Whore!) at them they seemed to love it even more.















Zoe and Colm had been to a Boca game with an Argentinian who had taken them to the hooligans end, and told them not to stand behind the support barriers because the fans actually stand on them, using the banners as supports. It was an impressive sight. They stood on the barriers all the way through the main game, singing and jumping up and down. You can make them out in this photo. They didn´t stop singing or banging the drums once for the 90 minutes.















The game was delayed for 5 minutes because Diego Maradona hadn`t arrived. He is God in this part of the world and he has the power to stop a game from kicking off. To be honest at the time I wasn´t entirely convinced it was him as he didn´t seem to play up to the crowd, but I had been told he goes to all the home games (especially as he has been given the best box in the ground for free). He is in this photo, but you´ll have to look closely. There´s a clue in there.















The game itself was really good. Boca won 2-1. After going 1-o up via a deflection, Banfield came back to equalise through a penalty, in front of the main Boca fans (one of the Boca players got sent off for diving behind the line, and handballing it, in an attempt to stop a shot going over the line. It was comical). As the player celebrated the penalty I saw one of the funniest things I have seen at the football. He ran into the corner area and was pelted with bottles. Two police officers ran onto the pitch with shields and stood in front of the players as they all jumped on each other, to stop them getting it. That was even more comical. Anway, on the second half Boca had another played sent off. One guy got booked for diving, and then sent-off for presumable protesting his innocence. So Boca were down to 9 men. With no more than a couple of minutes to go Boca scored the winner, with one of those cross/shots that flies in the goal. Que pandemonia. The place went mental. And then Banfield hit the post in the last minute (Boca had also hit the post and crossbar during the game).

During one point in the game, Boca had a free-kick in front of the Banfield goal. They did one of those dummy runs where one player runs over the ball, only for the other player to kick it. I heard one of the Americans telling her friends it was the "psyche out". Shocking!

At the final whistle the whole place jumped up and down, singing and waving flags and shouting abuse at the opposition. When the crowd get like this the whole stadium moves. It is pretty wierd being on the third concrete tier and feeling it sway. It is known as the "heartbeat" of the stadium (the stadium is called Estadio Alberto J. Armando - La Bombonera). It happened before kick-off and after the goals as well.

Given the name of the stadium and the fact that Armando is avery popular name here (it is Diego´s middle name) I am beginning to question my heritage. Is there something I havent been told?

I am sure the Americans went home happy. I hope I havent offended too many of you who may have stumbled across this website, and decided to read my blog about football.

Here´s some more pictures of the stadium, and the view from my seat.