Millionarios for a Night

So, after all this time, Anne and Mark finally went to a soccer match in Argentina.  Thanks to the Texas spitfire and her colleague the King of Buenos Aires, we ended up going to one of the first matches of the year of River Plate, one of the two big time teams based in Argentina (the Boca Juniors are the other).  River Plate is sometimes called "Los Millionarios"(~the millionaires).  There are multiple explanations for this floating around.  One is that they spent a lot of money on free agents and earned the nick name for that.  Plausible, but kind of dry.  My preferred story is the other one though.  River and the Boca Juniors both used to play in what is now Boca's stadium, called "La Bombanera" (~the chocolate box).  Eventually, they couldn't both stay there, so they played a match to determine who had to leave.  Boca won, so River moved.  River decided to move to a better part of town, got a bigger stadium, pays their players more, etc., so the fans of the rival Boca Juniors started calling River the Millionaires as a pejorative.  River, however, decided that if someone calls you a millionaire, you thank them and go with it.  So now, the name is both an insult and a compliment, depending on who is doing the calling.

Let's go!

So, first: the tickets.  The tickets we received as a gift, which is the only reason they were what they were (i.e. Anne and Mark would never have bought tickets like these).  Why not?  Well, frankly, in order to get these tickets, you had to buy the team.  Anne and Mark's tickets were essentially in the owner's box area.  Right on the fifty yard line (or soccer equivalent) and in a luxury box.  Pretty much the perfect location.

We were there.  The location of our seats is not actually on this map.  We were a bit off.  Oops.

The other advantage of these tickets, besides the great seats we eventually got to, was that we could pretty much go wherever we wanted.  Naturally, we first attempted to enter the stadium in the wrong area.  The guest services guy looked at our tickets and told us that we could enter through the press entrance, so once we found that, we did.  When we got there, we got waived through.  The press, mind you the people who attend every match and who the ticket people know personally, had to stop and pick up credentials and what not: we just got waived through.  From there, we kind of developed a "we're probably not supposed to be here" vibe, but just keep going until someone told us to leave.  We did ask directions, but we were told that the area of our seats was just "over there" about 10 or 15 times.  It turns out, most of the guest services people didn't know, so they just told us to go wherever.  So, we ended up wandering around the bowels of the stadium.  We passed the ramp where the ambulance enters the field at field level.  Probably could have walked out there if we wanted.  Opponents dressing room?  Walked by it.  Refs dressing room?  Walked by it.  Could have gone in.  We even saw the other team warming up (although at the time we didn't realize it because they were so small we thought they were a high school team warming up - soccer players are small).

But why would we assume it was a high school team?  Good question.  The reason is that in the bowels of the stadium there is a full service school.  They had gyms, computer labs, classrooms and even a pre-school (this is the room for the 4 year olds).

Eventually we did make it to our seats.  They were very nice and we had a view of the entire pitch.

After a small amount  of pre-game festivities, they kicked off.  The kick off was not nearly as exciting as it is in football, it is just one guy passing it to a teammate.  And then they played soccer for a couple of hours (also not as exciting as football).  So, spoiler alert, River Plate and Union Santa Fe played to a 0-0 draw.  Mark and Anne did not understand much of the strategy, but did gather based on comments from the other attendees that the refs were terrible and the other team was getting all the calls.

Soccer is a sport that is much better sport to watch live than it is on television.  The atmosphere is charged and the fans get really into it.

Everyone loves Ozzy.

 There are multiple fan groups, but the one you need to watch out for is called "Los Borrachos del Tablon" (roughly: "the drunks of the scoreboard").  These are the serious fans.  Some people might point out that these are the kinds of fans that often get into trouble around soccer matches.  Other people might point out that this particular group actually had a power struggle a few years ago in which some group members ended up dead, making it look less like a group of fans and more like something else.

In any event, at our match, all of the fans were vocal, but under control.  They played music the entire time, no breaks.  There were drums at all times and a series of songs and/or chants for most of the time.  During the slow parts of the game, it appeared that the fans may have been working harder than the players.

 So we had a great experience and a lot of fun.  We saw the most successful soccer club in Argentina play (36 Primera Division titles in Argentina, more than anyone else).  And, best of all, we were able to walk to and from the event, as the stadium - "El Monumental" is not far from our neighborhood.  So, at least for one night, Anne and Mark were millionarios.