Latin American football
Tonight is the equivalent of the Cup Final in Chile. The Universidad de Chile and a team called Colo Colo are battling it out for the title and a cup, presented by 3 vaguely chilean looking young poser girls (like you’d see at a Grand Prix event) and a token blonde who, rather dubiously, wears a cap (to disguise the 3ft long hair extensions!).
The scene at the stadium is uniquely Latin American- banners 10ft high are draped over the fences and walls of the stands, the ground around the pitch is littered with bottles, paper and other projectiles. And the crowd is very rowdy, supervised by what appears to be the Chilean army in full camoflage uniform!
The coverage is interupted every 10 seconds by another winning number posted in the bottom corner of the screen, and every 10 minutes by a beer advert. Indeed, it might as well be a battle for air-time. In this case, between Escudo and Cristal, the two “home-brand” beers of Santiago. Unsurprisingly, given Santiago water, the best beers are all produced outside of the city and cost the same as a Guiness made from the Liffey!
The roads are unusually quiet here… at least until the end of the match when at least a quarter of young fans jump into their cars, plant their hands firmly on the horn and drive the streets in search of… well, glory.
I’m supposed to be revising for a spanish test tomorrow morning, but I can’t seem to avoid watching the match. It is exciting in the way that Italian football is renowned for its eccentricities. The tackling is fierce and unrelenting. The players dart back and forth, the ball never left to free space. They’re certainly good at passing. But any attempts at the goal are typically from more than 25 metres and way out!
But a greater ability than any, is to foul. They do it in style, just like the italians, although with a tendency to more violence, on the pitch and off. Its not unknown for civil war to start in the terraces while the game resumes!
In response, the referee stomps around with a limited degree of authority on the pitch and even less credibility off the pitch. 20 minutes have passed and, just like Italian football, there have been 4 yellow cards already!