Sunday, October 21, 2007 Chilean Futbol: A once in a life time experience

Sunday, October 21, 2007 Chilean Futbol: A once in a life time experience

I was awake enough last night/this morning to remember to set my alarm so I could wake up in time for church. I went to mass at the Jesuit church a few blocks away. There were 2 priests taking confessions and I decided to take advantage of it and worked up enough courage to do my first confession in Spanish. I told the priest it was my first confession in Spanish and to tell me if he couldn’t understand. He chuckled and told me not to worry.

After mass I had almuerzo with Olga and did a little work before heading out to meet up with everyone to go to the Colo Colo vs. La Chile soccer game. Before I left for the game I asked Olga which team I should cheer for since I didn’t really have a preference. She told me to wait and see what section I was sitting in and cheer for that team!!

Background: The Chilean soccer league consists of about 20 teams throughout the country. Santiago has 3 big teams that are huge rivals with each other: Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad Católica (they have absolutely no affiliation with the Universities, they just have those names. I don’t know why and yes, it was very confusing trying to figure all this out). And the Colo Colo vs. La Chile is probably the biggest rival and most watched game. For clarification, this league is separate from the national team, just like the State’s MLS is separate from the World Cup team. But Chilean soccer isn’t very good compared to the other Latin American countries and even compared to the MLS.

Somehow my friend Will was able to get tickets ($22 each) and in the supposedly safer part of the stadium, which was the Colo Colo Stadium. So a group of decided to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in one of the most exciting events in the world of Chilean Futbol.

We all met up in the metro and ended up waiting 30 minutes for our two Latin friends from our program. (Its true that stereotypes come from somewhere!) After running (literally) around the stadium to get in our side, and passing through lots of security (I got patted down), we made it a few minutes before the game was supposed to start. The place was already packed and full of crazy screaming, many intoxicated fans. We were in the Colo Colo section which made up more than ¾ of the stadium. The La Chile fans were all together in one end of the field separated from the rest by huge fences with barbed wire on top and police men in so much armor that they looked like Ninja Turtles. I didn’t think anything of it and since the tickets get you into a section, not a specific seat, we slid in on the side closer to the La Chile fans because there was a lot of space. We later found out why there was a lot of space!

Right at 4:00 (game time) the entire stadium erupted into a cheer “Saleeoooo, Saleooo…” which basically means “Come out!! Come out!!” and the Colo Colo team rushed on to the field. Right when the got out onto the field we started hearing people shouting “Cuidate!” or “Be Careful”. We looked and saw rocks flying at us from the La Chile section. A guy about 2 feet in front of us got hit in the head with a rock and it was bleeding so bad he had to leave. When everyone realized they weren’t going to stop, the crowd started to push away from them to get out of the range of the rocks. For the second time in Santiago, I was actually a bit scared.
Eventually the rocks stopped flying and the La Chile fans started cheering “Saleeoo” while the La Chile players rushed the field. Not surprisingly, the rocks recently projected at us were now returned to their rightful owners. The game began like any other soccer game I’ve ever been to but we had to keep an eye out for rocks flying at us. It was a wonderful event and I realized how much I miss huge sporting events! The fans had more cheers than I thought possible, most of them including foul language and creative insults. My favorite was when thousands of people started screaming, “Puta, chuta tu madre”. I’m not going to translate it but you can probably figure out the general idea.

La Chile scored first which initiated another round of flying rocks. A while later Colo Colo returned the favor and the rocks. Colo Colo scored again in the middle of the second half but it was called back for off sides. After that the place started getting a little insane and the Police/Ninja Turtles were charging the crowd in the La Chile section to try and control them. People were hitting and pushing the police and it was general chaos for a while. Colo Colo scored again and with only 3 minutes left in the game and Colo Colo up 2-1 the stadium was nuts. Then La Chile scored out of no where. So the game ended in a tie 2-2, which I think I realized that is probably the best outcome there could be for our safety.

We tried to leave as soon as the game got over but the gates out where locked with police guards. After about 15 minutes they finally let us out and the crowd filed out in between lines of armored policed men. We had to walk about 45 minutes before we got to a metro that was open and on the way I made a friend. He was a 14 year old Chilean that was obviously listening to us speaking English so I figured he’d been learning some in school. He was really friendly and explained the chants we didn’t understand, why the fans are so crazy (he told us just because they love soccer!), where they get the rocks (the break the concrete steps), etc. He also explained why we couldn’t get on the metros (they close them at least an hour after big games otherwise it is really dangerous. Just image everyone in the stadium trying to get one at one station!) He said he goes to every Colo Colo game with his friends and his dad and he told us that he is a Colo Colo fan because they are “The people’s team”. Ironically that is what all the La Chile fans say.

Once we finally got on a metro, Courtney and I went our gringa friend Sara’s house to have once for her birthday. Since we got there so late we just had the delicious chocolate cake she’d made with amazing chocolate milk. Natalie came a while later and the four of us had a great time discussing religion and Chile. We took a bus home around 10 and I finally started my homework for the next day. I was going to take a shower but I fell asleep early (disgusting right?)