Tuesday, June 14 - Football and tragedy Football is a matter of heart. "Una sola passion Boca" (One love, Boca) can be read on the bonnets of some supporters. In South America more than elsewhere, it vibrates and I live for this sport.
Boca Junior is an iconic team throughout Latin America. The club, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is somewhat similar to Real Madrid in its reach beyond the national framework. The tee-shirt and yellow team is supported by many young people in Peru and Bolivia for example. Sociologically, it is inconceivable to say having visited South America without at least having attended a football game! Luckily, Boca plays an important game tonight against a Mexican team (the "Chivas" of Guadalajara). This is a game equivalent to a quarter-final second leg of our Champions League (European Cup of Clubs for the uneducated that I willingly forgive). You should know that Boca has been severely corrected in the first leg in Mexico suffering a heavy defeat (4-0). His chances of qualification are slim.
Despite this, in my arivée there, I discovered that all the seats are already sold! My first adventure is to strike and bargain tickets on the black market. I admit I had trouble because the Argentines are very proud and not necessarily in the way diplomats to discuss. If we offer a very low price for trying to "split the two" later, the seller in a hurry to upset and turned on his heel. By dint of trial and error and many failures, I achieved my purpose, however. My discovery of Turbulence continues when I start to queue to enter the stadium. About three quarter hours during which the progress is slow and the crowd was so compact sometimes violent. All only to find before the porch that I was wrong input. For safety, I took a seat numbered set quite high. I was told to be wary of fans who are in the pit because it can be dangerous. Finally, they are not as bad as I stood in line all along with them, learning to shift some of their songs and a lot of insults aimed at their opponents and the police! With all these mishaps, I can just kick off ...
The stadium is blue and it never stops singing. And always different songs that everyone knows by heart! Anecdotally, one of groups of supporters called "Boulogne." As for Paris Saint Germain, one of the stands on a street called "Boulogne." And as for PSG, it is the most violent and most virulent wiggle it, stuck against the fence ...
The match is one way: Boca attack all the time and the Mexicans are content to defend. But this year, Boca crisis. It piétinne in the league and, given its rout in the first leg, is already virtually eliminated the "Copa Libertadores" (name of the "Champions League of Latin American countries). And the crisis continues tonight: Boca plays well but does not mark. The public, it does not stop not sing. Minutes to go sterile and fans are always trying to shout loudly. The tension was palpable on the ground. Boca feels that any escapes. Despite the cold and wind, all heads are hot, two expulsions, throwing objects to the Mexican goalkeeper and a supporter who managed to enter the field. Many incidents that push the referee to end the game before its conclusion. A very dull out for the team's most successful on the continent ...
A tragedy that is bound and the dreams that break ... Football is the theater of the people. And every nation has its share of dreams. It's the same in Chile, "a hacer historia Vinimos" (We have come to write the story). The captain of the team under 20 years of Chile's impressive result was speaking Chileans against Honduras (7-0) at the World Cup in less than twenty years, which takes place in Holland. For three days, all newspapers have their one on this result. Everything became legend. The Chilean already saw the big picture. Yesterday evening, the same training lost 7-0 to the English. Rise and Fall ... Where we go from dream to tragedy in three days: it's soccer in Latin America in all its splendor.
