June 1, 2003
After a late breakfast, I basically waited for Margarita's friend to show up at about 10:30. The game didn't start until 3pm, but we had a few stops to make. We had a brief panic when we realized that Michaela had taken the phone off the hook and we might have been unavailable. However, after waiting downstairs and returning to the hotel room, I saw Margarita's friend approaching the hotel and left just before 11am or so. Margarita and Michaela would be heading to La Plata for the day to visit her aunt and other relatives. She did not want to take Michaela to a soccer game because of the potential dangers - which I later learned to be very real.
We took a taxi to a friend's house and chatted for a while before heading down to the Boca Juniors headquarters (or maybe it was the HQ for supporters). We hung around for a while until we talked to someone who told us to come back in a while so we went back to the friend's apartment and had a lunch of rolls with cheese, ham, and mayo. After lunch, we headed back to the Boca Juniors HQ, past a group of men smoking pot, and waited...and waited....and waited. Finally, we were told that the tickets were for 60 and 80 pesos and were for different areas. I didn't care. I paid for the tickets and again we waited some more.
Finally, we headed out for the walk to the La Bombonera stadium. There were groups of supporters walking toward the stadium singing, chanting, rattling their noisemakers, and taking over the street. I knew this would be a great experience unlike any other and it started about a block from the stadium, where police had blocked off access and were performed pat-down searches of everyone on their way to the stadium. I had to show the police my camera and palm pilot that I was carrying - but not a ticket, yet.
After the pat-down, it was a short one-block walk to the stadium, where there was a huge line of people. Our group was allowed to bypass the large crowd and this time our bags were subjected to searches before we were allowed to enter the stadium area. Once in the building, we found ourselves in another line where this time where the tickets had to be entered into a machine that read the magnetic stripe and we could proceed to walk up the stairs towards our seats. We bypassed a line that I later learned was for a general admission area that I would not have wanted to be in.
At the point where we went from underneath the stadium to the outside where our seats were, our tickets were checked once again. Finally we made our way to our seats and I found that the teams were already on the field playing. I found that odd since the game wasn't supposed to start until 3pm. Then, when the Boca team scored a goal against River, the crowd roared it approval, but it seemed kind of muted. That is when I learned that the two teams on the field consisted of backup or second-string players for the two teams. It was a warm-up!
There was a brief break before large plastic tubes emblazoned with the Pepsi logo that lead from the underground team areas onto the field were inflated. The stadium was packed and each balcony was draped with various banners. We were situated at one corner of the field. To our right was the section for the visiting River Plate fans, which were located behind one goal line. To our left was the main section of the stands and further to the left were the big Boca Juniors fans behind the other goal line.
The fans had been singing songs and chants at each other since we arrived. I wasn't able to decipher most of what the songs or chants said, but many of them included the word "puto" in them. When the River Plate players appeared the River section went wild, with flags waving and lots of yelling, etc. However, that nothing compared to what happened when the Boca players appeared. Yellow and blue smoke bombs, explosions of blue and yellow confetti and the appearance of a huge flag that covered one of the entire sections of Boca fans. I was impressed. It took a while for the smell of sulfur to go away.
River Plate controlled the early part of the game, spending lots of time on the Boca side of the field. They scored early with a well-executed goal about 10 minutes into the game. About 30 minutes later, Boca fouled River in the penalty area and River scored on the penalty kick. This quieted down the Boca fans.
At halftime, nobody left their seat. I wanted to go to the bathroom, but my host hadn't given me my ticket, so I waited in my seat. Again, when the players took the field, streamers were thrown from the stands and confetti and blue and yellow smoke were all around. This time, the River fans had literally covered the bottom areas of the stands and the field with the white paper streamers.
About halfway through the second half of the game, Boca scored a goal and the crowd came alive. Boca was now controlling the game and looked like they were on a roll. Less than 10 minutes later, they scored again (actually Barros Schelotto) and the crowd went nuts. People hugged the people next to them, raised their arms to the sky...some cried. I kid you not. I saw at least two men crying tears of joy (I assume they were of joy since they were seated in the Boca area). I have never seen anything like it.
For the rest of the game, it seemed like Boca might score at any moment, which had the crowd on its feet. I can only imagine what would have happened if Boca had scored a winning goal because the game ended tied 2-2.
Which brings me to the dangers I encountered at the game. Remember the paper streamers I told you about. During the second half, someone decided to light them on fire. While that surprised me, what surprised me even more was that the stadium was ready for it. At each of the field, there was a water cannon with firefighter at the ready. The streamers were on fire on a balcony where police were situated in front of the River crowd and on above the general admission Boca fans. Some idiot (I don't know if he was a staff person or not) tried to put out the fire by moving the streamers around and not only helped the fire grow, but managed to send burning papers onto the crowd below. It was a short while before the water cannon came to life, soaking some of the fans as it put out the fire. It would come to life at least three or four more times to put out similar fires.
Another possible danger were the fireworks emanating from the Boca fans, which went off for about 10 minutes during the second half of the game. They were shooting little balls of red and green light all over the place.
Finally, as the game ended, Boca and River fans spent more time throwing things at each other. While during the game there had been the odd plastic soda bottle or cardboard tube, now we were subject to beer bottles (I saw at least two) plus sizeable pieces of wood that had been broken off from some larger object. I only had to duck one piece that looked like the leg of a chair. Unfortunately, the idiot near me threw it back at the River fans! Just what we needed - supply them with ammunition and a reason to throw it. Of course, I still had to keep my eyes open for other flying debris, although only the one piece came close.
The River Plate fans were allowed to leave/escape first while the Boca fans remained in their seats. A smart move which I'm sure helps to eliminate some violence. We waited a long while before we left. After saying many thanks to my host for getting us the tickets, we headed out onto the crowded streets and walked a long way in a futile attempt to catch a taxi. We ended up catching a bus (80 centavos) which dropped us off about 4 or 5 blocks from the hotel.
Margarita didn't return until late with Michaela, but since I didn't know when they were going to return I stayed at the hotel after getting some food to eat.
Tomorrow - another day in Buenos Aires.....
Posted by mike at June 3, 2003 07:14 PM