Fútbol in Argentina
Argentines love their fútbol so before the season ended we wanted to make it to a game. We went to the closest stadium to where we live, Monumental, where River Plate plays. River Plate is the english translation of Rio de la Plata, the river here. Pretty funny how they have adopted english with their professional teams. They played a team called Racing, also english. It should be noted that you don’t pronounce it in english though, nobody will understand you. It’s more like Rrrreeever Plat. Or Rrrrraahcin. Anyhow, both teams were near the bottom of the standings for the season and since it was a Thursday night game, the stadium was maybe 50% full. It was enough for me, as the stadium holds 88,000 people, and the “barros bravos”- the die hard fans- come with fireworks and their own team songs. Racing’s visiting section was sectioned off with bars and the chants went back and forth all night. River Plate won 2-0 and as they do at every game here, the visiting team leaves and only then do they let the other team’s fans out of the stadium. They try to prevent incidents after the games. There is a distinct difference between the “barros bravos” fans and “hinchas” of teams here. Barros bravos are like a club that follows the team, often times like a full time job and often times are involved with drugs, etc. Hinchas are what you would call your normal fan. It is crazy to see billboards in the city for the next President of the various futból clubs here. They have elections (for the club members) and you would think the country is getting a new president. This is serious stuff here.
Our seats were in the Plateau Alta- the upper level section on the side of the field, but not where the barras bravas sit (their section is behind the goal on the upper level, called section “Popular”). Plateau Baja, the lower section was double the price, so that was a no go.
Sidenote: AC/DC played in the stadium three times the weekend prior and the grass was run down from the concert.
Stadium pictures and info on Wikipedia: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Monumental_Antonio_Vespucio_Liberti
