The Big Game (Part 2)

The energy level at a South American soccer game is like nothing I have ever experienced with spectator sports in the U.S.

Portland Trail Blazer basketball games don't even come close.

The cheap seats are behind the goals (click on the picture below), and those fans are the wildest. They appeared to be all sitting together with the other folks from their comuna (neighborhood) and they had paper signs to identify themselves.

What's more they brought drums and horns and sang songs, presumably about their love for their Nacionals.

These songs went on non-stop for the entire game.

One thing I found very odd was that there was no time clock, like in basketball. There was simply an announcement when there was one minute left to the half, and three minutes left to the end.

The Nacionals were playing a team from Argentina. The Argentinian team scored a goal just a few minutes into the game. It seemed to take a lot of the energy out of the crowd.

I don't understand the nuances of soccer, but it was an enjoyable game. But in the end the score was still 1-0 in favor of the Argentines.

With about five minutes left the skies opened up and it began to pour. The umbrellas came out and the stadium staff kindly handed out cheap white plastic ponchos.

As we left the stadium in the rain no one seemed too upset that their team had just lost their chance to become the champions of South America.

BTW, there were no alcoholic beverages served in the soccer stadium, but many spectators appeared to be getting pretty loaded outside the stadium before the game. We shared a bag of potato chips during the game. By the time the game was over all the restaurants had shut down back in our neighborhood so that was supper.