A Weekend of Football

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Two games of football took place this weekend in the coastal area of Mar Del Plata. The first was a tight affair, involving players recruited from all over the world and played with flair and passion in egual measures. The second was Boca Juniors Vs River Plate which I will come onto later.

This first match took place on the beach during the afternoon prior to "El Superclasico". A team of four unlikely but determined Europeans took on a bunch of tanned, toned argnetine primadonnas with the pride of our respective continets at stake. Our team comprised of myself, Jamie (also from London), Nick (from Holland) and Luis (from somewhere in Eatern Europe, i never round to asking him). The Argentines were confident, even arrogant prior to kick off, but in this game of four a side first to 10, with sandcastles for goal posts beach football no result is ever certain.

An hour or so later Nick poke the ball from a few yards after some majestic play out-wide by myself to seal a 10-7 victory. The argentines shook hands grudgingly and walked of embarrased and ashamed. Victory was sweet. (I also scored an awesome back heel from miles out but i can recreate that in the pub when i get back).

Later that day we headed to the main event (supposedly) of the day. A preseason clash between River and Boca played out infront of 35,000 crazy fans who clearly dont know the meaning of the word friendly game of football. The atmosphere was incredible with fireworks and songs and flares and lots of umbrellas (i didnt really understand that, it was in the Boca end). We were sat with the River fans and for the most part were lovely friendly people who didnt care there was a bunch of foreign students taking up room in their stand as long as we clapped, cheered, whistled and sung alung with them. The guy next to me even gave me his flag to wear like a cape cos it was cold and i only had t-shirt. The genourosity continued when the guy next to him gave my mate Jamie his fleece. The night was only slightly spoilt by some knobhead, extreme supporters (by extreme i mean people who dont actually watch or know anything about football but are usually quite big and ugly looking and are generally looking for trouble. This, i think is true in every country in the world). They started to kick off when the Boca fans started "olaying" after the side went 2-0 up a were in complete control of the game, so we left just before the end to avoid any trouble between sets of fans after the game. This was a wise move.

For all their attempts, the extreme fans couldnt spoil what everybody agreed was an awesome evening. The football wasnt up to premiership standards but Riquelme played and he was great to watch and the passion that the River fans show was infectious, even though i secretly wanted boca to win (they played better football and id already bought a shirt cos their kit is much nicer).

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Photos

The Beach at Mar Del Plata
The scene of our Victory

River Fans
The guy on the left game me a flag he had made to wear as long as i clapped and jumped up and down when he did

The Game itself
Sorry bout the blurryness. il try and nick someone else photos and show u later

Grafiti Outside the Stadium
*There is no Category, that understands this passion