I Loooooove Fútbol!

It's no secret that fútbol is South America's favorite sport. I expected that. But Argentina, being one of only 8 teams to ever win the world cup, and specifically Buenos Aires, the city with the highest concentration of professional fútbol teams in the world (24- thats almost the entire NFL in one city!), is especially passionate.

Crowd at Independiente

In the US, sporting events are centralized around entertainment. Yes you see a game and the game itself is entertainment, but there are also a million things at the stadium to occupy your attention if you happen to lose interest in the game (and maybe I'm only saying this because I'm a Royals fan.) You go to a game, you tailgate, you collect your free Royals snuggie, you play the is-the-baseball-underneath-cap-1-2-or-3? game, you watch employees dressed as hotdogs race around the bases while cheering for your favorite condiment, you text "vote #2" to a five digit number to put in your vote to hear "Party in the USA", the players approach the plate to a 30 second song clip of their choice, you fight the crowds in hopes of catching an XXL t-shirt launched by a man dressed as a lion in a baseball uniform- and after all this you've spent maybe 25% of your time watching the actual game (or maybe thats just me.) Needless to say, this is not the case in Argentina (or Uruguay.) 

Me with my boy :)

However, at the 2 South American soccer games I saw in the flesh (Peñarol, a team from Montevideo, Uruguay, and Independiente, one of Buenos Aires's top five soccer teams), I found myself watching probably no more than 25% of the game anyway. We showed up late for the Peñarol game, so we didn't get to see to much of it, but for Independiente, we got the whole experience. Independiente played the first night Drew was here, and since seeing a fútbol game was the one thing Drew definitely wanted to do during his stay, I dragged him out of bed from his nap (10 hours is a long, sleepless flight, if you're in the middle and 6'1") and we headed out. I booked through a tourist agency so we got the full experience- a personal guide and Independiente fan- Nacho, and a porteño-exclusive tailgate (we were told "no white people here"- when in reality we were the only white people at the whole game.)  At the tailgate, we got complimentary drinks and choripan, a traditional Argentine sausage sandwich and Drew's favorite thing (besides me) in Argentina. It was love at first bite.  

The reason fútbol is a must-see thing in South America, and the reason why I watched so little of the game, is the fans. The game we went to was on a Monday night and we were winning the whole time and they cheered non-stop like it was neck and neck at the Super Bowl. And not just cheering- jumping, singing, yelling chants and flailing arms. Non. Stop. Flags and banners were everywhere. Nacho told us that because of the crazy fans, alcohol is not sold inside stadiums (We drink we fight- he said), and lighters and coins are not permitted (because of crowd tendency to throw them at players if things don't go well). Despite the lighter ban, fans had celebratory fireworks and flares everywhere, as demonstrated in my video (sorry the audio doesn't record when I zoom.) Independiente won 4-1, so it was basically a blowout, but you never would have known it from the fans' reactions. At the point that Drew and I started to lose interest in the actual game the fans were going wilder than ever! Rather than attending a spectacle produced by advertisers, it was refreshing to see a culture that loves fútbol for fútbol, a pure interest and love for the game.