Soccer is not only the most popular sport in Argentina, it’s also the one people get the most aggressive over. At first we were very worried about going to a soccer game live. When our friends the Whites went to a soccer game where River Plate and Boca Junior played, some fans started lighting things on fire and they threw them at the opposite teams’ fans. But we were only going to Boca vs. Newell so it was a less important game. We hoped we would be safe.
First a bit of soccer history. Boca’s jerseys used to be pink but everyone laughed at them so they changed to black and white. But another team already had those colors. They got mad and challenged Boca to a match. The winner got to keep the colors. Boca lost and one of the players said he was going to go down to the port. He said that the first international ship to come would be their colors. A Swedish ship came first so their colors changed to blue and yellow, the colors of the Swedish flag. Newell is black and red and comes from Rosario. It never had any problems with its colors.
Boca and River Plate are the rivals of Argentina. Boca is 106 years old and one of the most popular teams in Argentina with over 50% of the population being their fans. This season they were 6th best out of 20. Both Boca and River were initially made up of poor Italian immigrants. But, in 1923 River Plate move to a richer part of the city and got fans there. It then became a rivalry of the poor against the rich.
River Plate ranked #5 this season---one ahead of Boca---but 17th out of 20 weighted for last three seasons. This is important because this means they are in danger of getting moved down to the second division. They have the colors white and red, and as you know Coca Cola’s colors are white and red. Naturally they had their ads at Boca’s stadium. Boca didn’t want anyone thinking that their ads were cheering for River Plate so they called the U.S.A and asked if they could change the signs into different colors. Coca Cola said yes and Boca changed the red to black so it was their old colors.
Now back to reality. The van picked us up at 2:00 along with around seven other people. We drove to the stadium and Liam, our guide, handed out tickets. We hid them in our pockets until we got through, then we found seats at the very top of the stadium. It was a lot of stairs, but I was happy. No one could throw stuff on you if you were above them! Once we were seated Liam told us that if someone comes and says that this is their seat we should move because they are members and own that seat. We sat and watched the game going on. It was for the junior Boca Jrs., the 15-17 year olds who are going to be the next soccer stars. They played before the big game so they could get used to being in a big stadium with lots of people watching them. After awhile we bought snacks and the real game started.
Police unrolled two huge tunnels, one for Newell and one for Boca. Boca was the better team by far so Liam predicted that the score would be 2-0 Boca. We were cheering for that team so we were happy. When Newell came out first one single box cheered. They were the only fans of Newell and for the entire game seemed to take it upon themselves to make up for their lack in number. They were constantly waving huge banners and synchronized their cheers. Mom said it wasn’t really fair because they had to import their props and fit them in cars. When Boca came out though, everyone went ecstatic and super hyper. They threw confetti and balloons (which later got in the way of the players) they were also screaming and jumping and singing songs. Most of the action went on around Newell’s goal and the ball almost never made it to Boca’s goal box. Soon we were asked to move by a young couple who owned those seats. We shivered, it was freezing and we didn’t want to have to stand but they had paid money so we moved. We found another seat a bit higher and watched the game from there. Soon though two men came and told us those were their seats so we had to move yet again. Boca ended up winning 1-0. It could have been a lot more though if Newell didn’t have an awesome defender who was number 5. Newell had to be escorted out by police so fans wouldn’t hurt them. From our seats we could see that the police carried shields. When I grow up I think maybe I will want to be a soccer player. I just won’t be one in Argentina.
