Greenbackyard

Old and new passions

When we were planning on coming over to Argentina, Danielle told me that she wanted to go to a football match and so we got in touch with Alejandro, a good friend of mine, that’s also a supporter of River Plate. The team hasn’t been doing great lately, last year, for the first time in its history, it finished the tournament last (how sad). Alejandro told us not get our hopes too high. My youngest sister, who had never been to a match, decided she wanted to join us (even though she is not a River Plate supporter).

We were very lucky to get free tickets through Alejandro and a friend of his. The tickets were for the “Platea Sivori“, which was behind the goal that River would be defending in the first half of the match. Most of the first half was OK until just as we were reaching half-time, a player from River plate barely touched (disclosure: I support River Plate) an Arsenal player and the referee didn’t even blink, declared a penalty and expulsed our player! What a start! This was the first match that both Danielle and my sister would be witnesses to? Seeing my team loose?

Fortunately, less than 5 min in the second half, my team equalised and after an excellent swap of players, Gallardo (aka El “Muñeco” Gallardo) scored a great goal in the first few minutes of the field and not much later a second, epic goal! Ok, I was happier now. This was a match worth watching. I even shot a very short and dodgy video with my phone.

This match had everything. 4 players saw the red card, we had a penalty, 4 goals, a roaring crowd … all of this in a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Buenos Aires. What started with some doubts ended up being a memorable afternoon.

Alejandro said that Ana (my sister) and Danielle had to witness all the matches from River Plate from now on since it was such a great game!

The Crowds as viewed from our seats

What really stood up for me was that after nearly 9 years overseas, I was really missing coming to a game here, where everyone is so passionate. It’s difficult to explain, as there’s a lot of violence during, before and after games and football has become such a money-driven show that conveying how a match like this one can make you feel seems impossible. However against all my preconcepts and all I remembered, I saw many families at the stadium. Fathers with their sons and daughters! Some of them little, younger than Zeek …

I really loved it! So did Danielle and I think Ana as well.