Football Argentina style

In our 3 days in Buenos Aires we managed to see and experience all of the major tourist attractions. We watched a Tango Show, ate lots of meat, walked the Sunday Market in San Telmo, saw the colours of La Boca, stood in awe of the extravagance of the Recoleta Cemetary and strolled the shops of Florida street. For Jacks and myself, none of these came close to going to a game of football.

We watched the most popular of the Argentinian sides, Boca Juniors, take on Argentinos. The days other game, between River Plate and Newell´s, had been cancelled because of riots and the fact that one of the supporters was killed. These supporters are pretty serious about their allegiance. A few years ago, busses carrying supporters from different teams arrived at toll gates at the same time. They started shooting at each other and a number of people where killed. They weren´t even playing against each other that day.

Our seats were in a ´relatively´ controlled and quieter section of the stadium. The field of play was completely surrounded by 3m fences and barbed wire and the staunch supporters of opposing teams were separated from each other and the rest of the stadium. I´m not sure of how much of the football they actually saw because for most of the game they were jumping around like crazed lunatics under a giant flag. For ´only´ $300 it´s possible to take in the hooligan experience and sit in the middle of the madness, your safety guaranteed by a couple of bodyguards.

Besides the superb entertainment of the supporters activities, the football was top class, with the underdogs beating Boca 3-2. After the game the visiting supporters are allowed to leave 30 minutes before the rest. Quite a nice and hopefully sufficient head start.