Copa Sudamerica

Tuesday night's activity was to a fútbol (soccer) match in the Copa Sudamerica, which is an international tournament for league teams. The night's match was between Liga of Ecuador (Quito, actually) and San Felipe of Chile. It was important, because it was the last match of group play before the quaterfinals, and San Felipe won the first by two goals. Liga needed to win by three goals to advance cleanly. Liga also had won this tournament four times before, so much was expected of them.

Greg was really jealous that I was going to a match. Soccer in South America is just so different from what we're used to! Now, to be fair, I had an inkling -- there is such a large Central American population around Washington and we'd been to numerous matches, not only with Central and South American players, but big international matches for World Cup and the Olympics. So I had a sense, but it was great fun too.

First, we took the bus. And that took more than an hour to get there. It was just across town, but with awful traffic and the fact that the city is just so long. So it was a fun time to just relax with classmates and learn about what they were doing in Ecuador (many of them were volunteering in addition to studying). Then we bought tickets and jerseys. Then we had street food dinner. I know that people are often concerned about street food, and I have been before too, notably in Vietnam. However, I ate a lot of it in Ecuador, and it was just GOOD. Finally we went inside.

Somehow, my water bottle wasn't allowed, but rather than just confiscate it, they dumped it into a plastic bag for me. So yes, I then carried a BAG of water through the stadium. Drinking it was funnier though....



And we had time to take pictures of the field and our fellow match-goers. What amazed me wasn't the drum for the whole game, the singing for the whole game, or the enthusiasm. It was the standing on and jumping on concrete bleachers for the whole game. My knees hurt just thinking about it again.

Other interesting observations:
✷ The referees (arbitors) carried a can of white spray paint and used it to mark ball placements and 10-yard lines. It did seem to help cut down on the encroachment and delays.
✷ Whistling. South Americans have this amazing whistle that is loud and piercing. It's just a completely different way of puckering lips and tongue. Try as we all might, only two had any luck, and it was rather sad.
✷ Smoking. Ah, this about did me in. It's outdoors, so doesn't matter that it's public.
✷ Food vendors are amazing. I couldn't believe what they sold in the stadium and how they dragged things through the stands. Then again, everyone was standing on the "seats" so there were aisles for walking.
✷ Police were everywhere. When we came out of the stadium, we walked straight into a full line of mounted police. The horses did not look at all comfortable with those crowds.
✷ We watched people climb the fences before the game (see photo above), and with fire extinguishers. Well, when the home team is announced and it's kickoff time, they release the extinguishers. Yes, we were all coated in white spray for a while.

I took video too, but they aren't uploading. I'll have to work on that. One was of a song, pre-game, and the other I wanted to post was the goal from a penalty kick. Bummer.

Oh, but Liga won, 6-1.