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| victory cheers at the end of a close 3-2 match |
Victory for Colo Colo! At the start of a new season, Chile's most supported fútbol team hit the ground running with an electric match with the Italian team (whose players and staff are Chileans, but the team is, from my understanding, owned by the Italian mafia in Chile).
Ready to experience a Latin American professional soccer game?
"Look as ugly as possible." That's what Pablo told me the first time we went to the stadium together. No escote, no cell phone, no jewelry, wear an old shirt and don't bring a purse. Do I need to hide my blond hair, too? And the safety precautions continued at the stadium.
As we walked from the parking lot to the stadium, people are selling Colo Colo jerseys, fried foods, completos, water bottles and I may have seen a weed exchange in the street. Sidewalks are full of families with baby fans, inebriated university guys with their half-dressed girlfriends and cops on horses. Pushing and shoving are the norm as everyone wants to get through the 3 security checks to get into the stadium.
I can't figured out why there are so many security checks: they barely looked at my ticket, no one checked for my ID even though their are scanners and you'd be shocked at the number of homemade bombs thrown at the opposing fans. They even let you take in open water bottles!
It is a one-sided stadium. You have to be crazy to go to a visiting stadium to watch a game. There is no sportsmanship between fans. Sure, the South has some violent college football games among drunk fans; the difference is that here, anyone could be a victim of random adrenaline-driven violence. In a stadium of almost 50,000 seats, less than 300 are visitor fans. At the end of some games, they dismiss the home team fans first and the visiting fans have to wait almost an hour in leaving the stadium to avoid street brawls.
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| see the sunny side? Cheapest tickets & wild |
The first time I went to a game, Pablo took me and 2 other Colorado friends (hey Mike and Travis!) and it was a hot, hot day. We bought the cheapest tickets which meant direct sunlight for the majority of the game. And there are no seat assignments so we ended up sitting in the aisle next to shirtless, drunk men whose vocabulary consists of only 3 of the worst street garabatos. There were no families in that section. For my second game, we sat on the opposite side - shaded, assigned seats and lots of babies at their first Colo Colo game. But don't expect a churchy crowd. These guys have a sailor's mouth. If you want to learn Chilean swear words - go to a soccer game. Into the next day they were still rolling off my tongue. I guess I learn Spanish by osmosis and thankfully, can distinguish between the bad and really awful chilanismos.
What else should you know about stadiums in Chile? They don't sell alcohol. None. Also, when we were walking into the first security check, Pablo told me to keep my ticket hidden and only show it to the person working. Chileans steal. Even paper tickets at stadiums. Unbelievable. The concession stand ran out of water and beverages and even weirder, they don't have soda fountain machines; they sell beverages out of glass bottles and pour it for you into a paper cup. One of the most savage things? There are 2 fenced in sections. Fences around people. To what extent do you show such extreme emotion that you are fenced in like an animal?
Don't sit in the fenced area unless you like tear gas, homemade bombs and no mercy. If you want to go - get tickets in the other sections and try to go with a Chilean. You can get to the stadium by metro but beware, they close stations for crowd control so you need to know where nearby stations are.
Is it worth it? Yes! I have to now, Pablo just bought me a Colo Colo jersey.
