Day Thirty Nine

     Crazy day! Derby Day in Buenos Aires. Boca Juniors took on River Plate at River Plate's stadium. 74,000 absolutely crazy Argentineans gathered for the biggest match of the year. I got a ride to the stadium with the host parents of the girl from Germany from my class who I went with. No one else was able to go for whatever reason, and Zack was up at Iguazu Falls. We accidentally found ourselves in the middle of the Boca caravan to the stadium. Absolutely wild! They pissed off the whole city because they didn't stop for any red lights or anybody. They set their sights on the other side of town and didn't stop till they got there. There were guys hanging out of windows, riding on the roofs of cars, 10 person vans filled with so many people that some people only had one leg in a window and the rest of their body was totally outside the van. And the whole way they were honking and singing and waving their flags and banners! Wild 30 minute car ride to the stadium! At one point in the middle of the city they all parked their cars and got out and sang and danced for about 5 minutes before getting back in and continuing on.

     Amelie and I had tickets with the River fans who are known as more civil but that would not be anywhere close to what I would call them. Especially because our ticket was to "the popular" section. The hooligans. The rowdies. This is their section. Standing room only, and they sing and chant the entire game from start to finish. It was so crowed guys would bring 10 feet of ribbon that they would then tie to the stands ten feet back from the handrails and then stand on the handrails. Craziness! We saw a fight break out between two river fans right before the game started, super intense with the one guy kicking the other in the head after knocking him to the ground. After that though the game started and everyone was really friendly and filled with River Spirit! River scored about 3 minutes into the game and the place erupted. I mean erupted. You could feel the stadium bouncing up and down or more flexing under all the fans jumping up and down. Wish I could explain how crazy it was. The police didn't ever come into our section. They stood outside but it was kind of like a no mans land and they all knew they couldn't make a difference inside our section if they wanted to.

     Now I understand why this rivalry is #1 on the list of top 50 sporting events you must attend before you die!

     The game was fantastic. River led the entire game. Boca scored its first goal part way through the second half making the score 2-1 River. Then at 90:45 with less than a minute left in play Boca scored again. The boca side went beyond crazy! Even surrounded by river fans whistling (which they would do everytime to drown out Boca when they started a chant) the Boca fans were deafening loud from all the way across the stadium. Then the game was over, finishing in a tie. Boca left cheering and River left feeling defeated since the win had been stolen at the last minute.

     Very interesting though, this rivalry is so intense that the Boca section is totally quarantined from the rest of the stadium, with its own entrance. After the match Boca gets to leave first. All of the River fans sat down and waited. It was an additional 30 minutes after the Boca section was empty until they opened the gates to let the river fans out. And still with this precaution 30 people were hospitalized including some police with initial reports of 1 death which has since been corrected. Crazy day in the stadium!!

     Afterwards we got sushi at this amazing sushi restaurant half way back from the stadium. Best sushi I have had in a very long time. Total splurge of a day, but an amazing day all around! I will never forget today!