Tonight Jacob and I went to see "La Roja," Chile's national team vs. Paraguay in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Basically, all the teams in South America play a series of games over two years, and the top four go to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Keep in mind that two of the best teams in the world—Argentina & Brazil—are destined to take two spots, so everyone else is fighting for the other two.
The game started at 10:30pm, but because we had general admission tickets ($12 each), we had to get there at 7pm to get a good seat. The stadium was old, with warped wooden benches, and little leg room. I was dreading the wait, but it actually ended up being fun. The crowd sang songs, people chatted, and they threw around an effigy doll of a Paraguayan soccer player. Amazing that Chile—which is just as capitalist as America—hasn’t come to gouging sports fans: everything cost a buck—a coke, chips, peanuts, ice cream, hot dog, etc. There was so much energy and spirit and optimism, as Chile’s new coach had been practicing new strategies with the team in secret.
Well, the cool thing is we saw the best team in South America. The bad thing is it was Paraguay, who leapt to 1st place in the qualifying ranking by beating Chile 3-0. The game was fun, but the energy of 76,000 people evaporated each time Chile—who showed incredible control of the ball—failed to score a goal, and each time Paraguay scored goals with simple, perfectly-executed, textbook corner kicks and plays.
We got home at 1:30am.
