In case you didn’t know, soccer is kind of a big deal in South America (and in Europe…and in Asia…and pretty much everywhere in the world besides the U.S.).  In Buenos Aires, the two major teams are Boca Juniors and River Plate—each from opposite barrios, the former coming from La Boca, a notoriously poor neighborhood while the latter goes by the name “Los Millionarios” and calls the trendy Palermo neighborhood home.  When these two teams play each other, it is OUT OF CONTROL.

Thursday was the rescheduled day for the Superclásico and I was so excited I couldn’t control myself and was having muscles spasms every 30 seconds.  It was hilarious because I walked out of my apartment and my doorman, Pablo, was about to say hello but then dramatically gasped because I was wearing a Boca jersey.  That’s how intense the rivalry is here.  

Anyway, I made my way to the Academic Center so that all the NYU kids and I could leave for the stadium.  I brought a banana for a snack and it was legitimately the biggest banana in the world.  I felt really dirty carrying around such a large phallic object for so long, but actually turned out to be really entertaining.

The banana was really busy talking on his phone about how excited he was for the game.  He even buckled up because safety = lo más importante.  We’re BBBFL (Best Banana Buddies For Life). 

We made it to the stadium a lot earlier than last time so we had a lot of time to kill.  While we waited in line to enter, we bought Boca flags and ate choripan (chorizo + pan = choripan…it’s really complicated) and tried not to act American.

Mmm, so healthy:


Ben, Emma, and I with our make-shift bandanas.  Club Atlético Boca Juniors is shortened to CABJ.  And of course my bandana was folded so that BJ was branded across my forehead.  OF COURSE IT WAS.  
 

Since we were there so much earlier, we had the chance to pick the best seats.  Lily, Phoebe and I wanted to be as close as possible, so we went to sit in the part of our section that wasn’t under the awning.  Then we heard some pretty critical information that made us change out minds: River fans sitting in the section above us were notorious for peeing down on the Boca fans below them.  Peeing.  On people below them.  Which would have been us.  Excuse me, but there was in way in hell anyway was going to pee on me.  NO.  NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.    

NYU had scared the crap out of us and told us that the game was extremely dangerous and made it seem like we were in danger of being shanked and clubbed over the head by overzealous Boca fans if they found out we were Americans.  Therefore, I had 30 pesos in one part of my bra, my ticket in the other, no jewelery, was wearing converse (in the event I had to made a quick getaway), and was ready to elbow my way out of the stadium.  That couldn’t have been a bigger lie.  Sure, the crowd was rowdy, but that was because they were so passionate about the game.  It was awesome to see the differences between Argentine sporting events and American ones.  There was no alcohol served, everyone was intently watching, constantly singing and jumping.  The stadium was SHAKING.  In the states, everyone just wants to get drunk at games and they end up having conversations with people and end up not paying that much attention.  I like the Argentine way better.

Things were crazy even before the game started.  Everyone was singing the Boca songs (there are about 5 trillion) and sparkly confetti and whatnot was shooting out everywhere:


Unfortunately, they didn’t think the sparkly confetti part through very well.  It was so hard to clean up and they spent half an hour trying to blow the pieces away to no avail.  The players had to play in a sea of sparkly confetti and it turned out to be aesthetically pleasing because each time the players starting running, the confetti had this awesome ripple-effect.  Too bad it kept reflecting the light and blinding the players.  Oh well, así es la vida.  

Really productive:
 

The game was INCREDIBLE.  I’ve never had so much fun before.  It was so cool to sing along with the rest of the fans and yell obscenities at the referee when we didn’t agree with his calls.  The crowd went WILD after the first goal.  So much screaming and hugging!  After halftime, the River goalie was on our side of the field and Boca made an incredible goal that flew past the goalie’s fingers and into the right corner of the goal.  It was probably the most exciting moment of my entire life.  It was just like a Nike commercial: The ball was moving in slow motion and the crowd was holding its breath and it was just fantastic.  Our side of the stadium basically exploded with fans screaming cheers and jumping.

The most passionate fans in the world:


The final score was 2-0, a win for Boca.  ¡Dale, dale, Boca! ¡Te llevo en el corazón!
Here’s a YouTube clip of what it was like during the 2008 Superclásico so you can get a feel of the incredible atmosphere:

I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the best time of my life.  I LOVE ARGENTINA.