La Copa Libertadores

You know the feeling when you are watching something happen to you in slow motion? That happened to me for the first time last night, when I was at a Peruvian national soccer game. This was the fourth time that I have been to a South American soccer game and just like the other times, the excitement and emotion among the crowd was the highlight of the game. Each time I have gone to a game, I’ve always bought tickets for the “South,” the cheapest section, with the liveliest crowd (which is an understatement). I went to a Copa Libertadores game (the three best national teams from each South American country play in a tournament to determine the best team in South America), between Alianza from Peru against La “U” de Chile.

Two of my officemates were kind of enough to accompany me to the game and watch over me. We got there about an hour and half early and the crowd was already pretty riled up. I quickly learned that the crowd was not just composed of crazy fans, but also thieves who were shameless in their attempts to rob people. While my friend, Miguel was holding me and protecting me from the crowd, which seemed to take pleasure in pushing people down the steps, a group of four or five thieves grabbed him from behind. I desperately tried to keep a hold of him, but let go, and they pulled him to the ground and started trying to grab things from him, while others had him pinned down. This was happening while the other men in our group held on to me to ensure that I wouldn’t be pulled down as well. We looked on helplessly as our friend was being robbed. Except that, there was nothing to rob because he had carried anything with him, no phone, no money, nothing. Luckily, the crowd doesn’t react so kindly to thieves, so the they started to fight the thieves, and they finally let him go.

It was the beginning to a night of pushing and shoving, but also to a pretty entertaining time. At times, I wondered if the crowd was supporting the same team, because they kept fighting with one another. There seems to be a culture of paternalism in that the older men keep watch to make sure that the entire crowd continued to sing and chant the entire game. If they saw that some people were not singing, they take it upon themselves to push then down the steps. A few times my friends were saved from this fate because they would not dare shove a woman. At least the chivalrous culture comes in handy sometimes!

Despite the pushing and shoving, the game was a lot of fun. The emotion and excitement of the fans in South American is unmatched. When the team enters the field, the streamers, confetti, songs, yelling, and fire is truly a site. And the singing and jumping never ends, no for a second. Not when the other team scores a goal, not when the team misses a goal, its ongoing; a ritual. Going to such a game is definitely an experience that I would gladly repeat with one exception, next time it would be better if Alianza won.