Are you ready for some futbol?

Last night I finally attended my first Chilean football game, and it was quite the experience. The home team, Colo-Colo (think the NY Yankees of Chile) won 2-1, but lost its matchup as it had fallen in the previous game 3-0 (the aggregate score matters in football tournaments). Thus, the opposing team, America (which hails from Mexico) played very defensively, keepin six or seven players back to guard the goal throughout. Nonetheless, Colo Colo kept up its attack, and despite some frustrating occurances, the quality of play was much better than the other Chilean games I'd seen on TV.

The Chilean fans were just as rowdy as I had hoped: loud, proud, and yes, sketchy. We were confronted countless times between the metro stop and the stadium entance by teens in slighly grungy Colo Colo jerseys asking for money--some claiming only to need a few more pesos to pay for a ticket, others a little more upfront). But apparently our group had it easy, as they tried to reach into my friend Eddie's pockets to get his iPod (which doesn't make sense as the's the biggest guy in our Stanford cohort here) and the girls were asked to perform a number of explicit sex acts which I will not elaborate on here.

Based on what now appears to be bad advice, we arrived to the stadium more than two hours early, and thus stuck out like a sore thumb. Although we weren't with the rowdies in the cheap seats (center of the field tends to be a little pricer; we paid rougly $15 each) we still got plenty of looks. The nearby fans nearly gave the girls a standing ovation of hoots and hollers when they came down the steps (blondes are in high demand here, it seems). A group of kids (I'd guess between eight to ten years old) decided to befriend us, posing for pictures and sweet talking the girls. Only when their dads, who had been sitting a few rows back watching with subtle amusement, decided enough was enough did the kids return to their seats. Of course, the chosen method of shutting their kids up was giving them each a cigarette.

Once the game started, the fans' attention shifted to the field of play. The game itself was a blast, I didn't catch on to all the cheers (most featured some sort of insult at the opposition's mothers) it was still great to be part of the crowd. One of the Spanish teachers, who is only in her late twenties, I'd guess, came with us and tought us a few of the chants. There was a fight in the stands on the other side of the field, and while the tides of onlookers rushed to catch a glimpse of the fray, they immediately reversed and fled the other direction as a cadre of menacing-looking policemen clad in full-out riot gear charged into the fracas. A few fireworks were set off from the crowd, and the police had to chase down an unauthorized sandwich vendor, but it didn't look like anyone was stabbed, so I'd say the game was a victory for all.