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Published: April 7th 2009
Well I think thats how the song went!
So, as promised, I thought I'd write a little about my adventures in the football stadiums of Buenos Aires (with the promise of a Superclassico to come). It all started one fine March day, when I wandered down to the Monumental, home of River Plate, to see if I could buy tickets for the Argentina vs Venezuela game the following week. Turned out they weren't on sale yet, but I could buy tickets for the River Plate vs San Martin de Tucuman game that Sunday, and also, there was a stadium tour leaving in 10 minutes if I wanted a look around. Of course, I bought both.
The Monumental gets overlooked in favour of the Bombonera by most people that come to BA, and I have to admit, until 10 minutes beforehand, I had no plans to go to a River match, or to visit the stadium. But I'm glad I did, as the tour of the stadium was very good, and as it was all in Spanish, gave me a good chance to practise my own! I was sad to note that River's trophy room was a touch bigger than
Where I was
I'm around and about the leftmost of the streamers hereHuddersfield's.
Sunday game around, and I headed down to the game. My tickets weren't with the most hardcore River fans (Los Borrachos del Terraco ... "The terrace drunks") but just below them, so there still was a pretty good atmosphere. However, the first half was a bit of a damp squip, mainly because San Martin scored in the first minute from an awful defensive howler. It has to be noted, that River looked pretty poor.
The second half was a lot better, and River grabbed a goal with about 20 minutes to go. The 20 minutes that followed were incredible, as the fans around me seemed convinced that the way to ensure a River winner was to sing louder and louder, and possibly jump up and down a bit for good measure. At Town, in the same situation we generally just moan, and possibly start booing our own players (not me personally). Anyway, it seemed it would be in vain, until the ref gave a very dodgy last minute penalty. It was duly scored, and the place went wild. Everyone was still singing as we were let out of the ground an hour later. By the way, I
Bombonera
The stand on the right is the cricket pavillion. The black and white coke sign in the middle should mention that the photos from the game aren't mine, I was sat in the end with the 3 big red and white streamers hanging down.
So, having seen River, it was time to turn Tommy Turncoat, and head up to La Boca, home of their great rivals, Boca Juniors. First thing I should mention, is that it is common knowledge that La Boca is not the safest of BA's districts, and it definitely isn't a good idea for tourists to go wandering around. Unfortunately, myself, along with Mike and Will, 2 other English guys I went up to the stadium with, missed our stop on the bus, so had a fun time defying all normal advice and going for wander in La Boca. We were fine, incase you wondered.
At this time, we were just at the stadium to look around. One of the first things you notice is that the big Coca Cola logos are in black and white, instead of red and white. Apparently, this is the only place in the world where this is the case, as Boca refused to have the River colours on their stadium. One of the supposedly distinctive things about
La Bombonera is that in order to stay within the limits of the area they'd bought for the stadium, one side has had to have all the seats and boxes piled on top of each other. For me, it gave the impression that it was like a cricket terrace, and wasn't dissimilar to one of the stands at Bristol Rovers' Memorial Ground. And that will possibly be the only time Bristol Rovers are mentioned in the same breath as Boca Juniors. I'm coming back to BA to see a game here later, but for now, that was the end of the Bombonera for me.
And so came the game I'd been looking forward throughout my stay in BA, Argentina vs Venezuala at the Monumental, Maradona's first official game in charge. As such, the build up was like a Maradona homage, and various banners around the ground attested to this. There was also a very large flag suggesting that the English should kindly depart. They possibly used stronger language though. It was enough to convince me that it might be wise to pretend to be Scottish for the duration.
As for the game, the first half was dull, apart
Copa Libertadores
My plan to steal it and put it in Town's trophy room failed miserably from Messi's goal, which was rather good. In the second half, when Argentina were attacking the end we were sat at, they ran Venezuela ragged, and added 3 more goals without reply. It really was men against boys, I reckon Town might have put up a better fight. After the game, we jumped on the first bus that came past, which turned out to be a bit of a party bus. I spent the half hour journey back to Palermo hanging on out the door, with everyone jumping around and singing. Great fun!
The day after the game, I upped sticks and left for Rosario, but as I mentioned I am hopefully coming back to BA for the biggest game of them all, the Superclassico!
Stewart
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