Futbol!

Yesterday I went to my first soccer game here in Chile.  It was Universidad Catolica vs. Audax Italiano, played at the stadium of La Catolica.  (Even though La Catolica has the name of the University in its title, it is a professional sports team; there is also a team called Universidad de Chile.)  I went with my gringa friend Hattie and my Chileno friend Marco.  We drove to the stadium, which is in the outskirts of Santiago, in the foothills of the Andes, at around 5:30 in the evening.  The neighborhood that the stadium is in is upper-class, Marco said that it is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Santiago.  The stadium was almost full by the time we got there, (it could probably hold around 12,000) and there is no assigned seating, so we sat behind one of the goals because it was one of the few places left.

 As those of you who are soccer fans know, the seating behind the goals is where the most rowdy fans sit.  The opposing teams fans sat in a section of the stadium separated from the rest by a 15 foot high fence to prevent any violence. As the players took the field, all the fans around us started doing a combination of yelling, singing, whistling and chanting in semi-unison.  The opposing teams' goalkeeper had just recently killed somebody while driving drunk and had also previously played for the arch-rivals of La Catolica, Universidad de Chile.  Whenever he touched the ball, fans would whistle and yell "boracho" at him.  When I say whistle, I mean the loudest, strongest whistle you can imagine.  It is the kind of whistle you get when you stick two fingers in your mouth and deafen the person sitting next to you.  When the whole crowd is doing it at once, it can be pretty distracting.

"We aren't God, but we're everywhere"

Despite (or maybe because of) all of the whistling, the goalkeeper played out of his mind, making some spectacular saves.  La Catolica hit the crossbar 3 times, but lost the game 2-3.
Going to the game was a really cool experience, I thought that the soccer was similar to the MLS in the United States, with a little more emphasis on the technicality.  The fans in Chile definitely deserve the "Fanaticos" name that they have.    

Lighting up the flares