Let's hear it for Godoy

Dan: I saw all the people in soccer replica jerseys heading towards the park. I decided that I needed to go to that game too. There are a few professional teams from this area. The Mendoza team is in the second level league. The most successful team in the area is the one from Godoy Cruz, also known as Tomba, or the Express. The people are crazy about them here. They made it up to the first league a couple of years ago and play in the big stadium that was built for the world cup in the 70s. I hear they are in danger of being sent back due to their record, so it’s very important that they at least win every home game. A couple weeks ago there was a heartbreaking 0-1 home loss to Boca Juniors, who, along with River Plate, are like the Yankees and Red Sox of Argentine soccer.

So anyway I found the right bus, which dropped us on the side of the stadium where the opposing team’s fans were congregating before the game. I tagged along with an older guy and a young man in searching for the correct entry to the stadium. The señor kept telling me that those people, the fans of Rosario, would rob me if I wasn’t careful. Those people are on drugs, he said. We ended up having to wander around a circumference much greater than that of the stadium, to get to the other side. So much of the park was roped off and guarded by police every 50 yards or so to keep the fans of the opposing teams from intermingling and causing trouble. When we finally got to the other side, we went through three, that’s right, three police patdowns before anyone asked for our tickets. I didn’t have a ticket so thanked those two for their help and went on my own to find a ticket office, which everyone said was around there somewhere, but no one could quite tell me where. Eventually I was sent down a little wooded path, having almost circumnavigated to where I got off the bus. I asked about tickets at the next entryway. A guy asked someone else, then told me I’d have to go where I just came from, only that they were now closing that path, so I’d have to go around the whole stadium again. I was about to curse the name of Islas Malvinas stadium, go home and find a bar with cable tv to watch the game, when suddenly a man in a black shirt and black pants came from inside the gate and gave me a ticket and said, “You don’t owe me anything,” and let me in the gate. So, with still 30 minutes to spare before game time I found a seat. Dang, I love it when good things happen to me!

I sat midway up, near the middle of the field. A great view for sure. Behind either goal, in the cheap seats, is the hincha for each team. Hinchas are the superfans of each side. They are almost all in team attire, waving flags and leading all the songs and chants for their team. I heard that most teams have paid hinchas that they bus to their away games. Rosario had its songs and loose choreography, but they were outnumbered and after the first five minutes or so, when the Tomba supporters got going, I could hardy hear anything from the visitors. The stadium owners save a lot of money on organ-player fees when the crowd keeps percussion and vocals going the whole game. Sure makes going to a Twins game look lame, when the jumbotron has to implore us to say “charge!” The game itself was very good too. Tomba scored off a penalty kick in the first half. Rosario tied it up in the 90^th minute, only to be answered by another from Tomba in the 93^rd. A very dramatic finish which left most of the crowd in a good mood, honking their horns and waving their flags out their windows all the way home. I ran into an English friend and walked with him and his gang til I figured out how to get home on my own.

Game food: Ice cream, popcorn, peanuts, coke, coffee. Pretty boring except for one hot item, Choripan, which looked like a grilled kielbasa on a bun. No beer.