The game itself was exciting. There is a lot more contact allowed by the refs; pushing, running slides to kick out the ball and sometime the other player’s feet from under him. The pace of play was fantastic, moving from end to end. Their ability to control the ball with their feet and their head was magical. As good as the game was, it was nothing compared to the entertainment put on by the fans.
River Plate Stadium holds about 65,000 people. On the upper deck, four sections are reserved for the visiting team fans. These sections are at one end of the stadium and have a high mesh fence with barbed wire running along the top like on a prison wall. Three of the four sections will filled with SMT fans, even though it was a 15 hour drive to get to the game. The rest of the stadium was filled with River Plate fans. Starting about 30 minutes before the game, the Spanish equivalent of “Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah Hey-Hey Good-bye!” rang throughout the stadium and continued non-stop until about 30 minutes after the game. The two opposing fan groups seemed to be trying to out-chant each other. When the play turned to their team’s favour, their chants grew louder.
At the end of the game, all the home team fans had to remain in the stadium for about 45 minutes. All the SMT fans were allowed to leave first. As one person said, “It is to give them a 30 minute head start to get out of town.” The stands were heavy patrolled by police, especially near the SMT fan area. This time wasn’t wasted by the River Plate fans; most of the men removed their red and white T-shirts and waved them in a circle above their heads as they chanted the Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah anthem. It was quite a spectacle.
Prior to the game we went to an area of the city known as La Boca. It was a poor Italian immigrant area near the old docks that has been transformed into a quaint area where artists sell their painting and tango dancers dance on stages at the little bars that flow out onto the street. If you have ever seen any pictures of Buenos Aires in a tourist book, they likely include pictures of a little street with brightly coloured buildings. This street is “Caminito” in La Boca.
Sunday night being our friend Yoli’s last night in Argentina, we went back to La Cabrera for another great meal. Late on Monday afternoon, she headed to the airport to fly back to London. We checked on the Internet and as I write this she should be getting home. We sure enjoyed spending time with her. We are now starting to look forward to our move to Australia, and spending a week free of traffic noise on a houseboat on the Murray River. We leave Buenos Aires on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and arrive in Adelaide on Saturday at noon, with about 20 actual hours of travel time.
Cheers for now
Ian
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| La Boca "Caminito" and the River Plate Soccer Game |
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