Cherry Pop: International Soccer Game

This week I had the chance to see my first two international soccer games- Colombia vs. Venezuela & Colombia vs. Argentina. The stadium was a sea of yellow jerseys, honking horns, and people eager to see their team take down two of their most disliked rivals. The crowd got pretty routy… beers were only 3 mil (1.50 USD)!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf3bQvtW7ho&feature=youtube_gdata]

For the first game against Venezuela I sat up in the higher level by myself. I quickly made friends with the old, drunk guys sitting beside me. While I feel like my spanish has improved to a point I can understand and communicate fairly well, these guys humbled me. They would say a bunch of stuff in an unhappy tone, look at me and say “SI O QUE?!” Whenever I heard that I would throw my arms up and say “SI!” That got me through the game without anyone knowing I had no idea what they were saying. We went into halftime up 1-0, but gave away a goal in the second half to tie… a loss to the people in Colombia, and along with the rain enough reason to cancel the cumbia festival later that night.

I had second row seats for the second game against Argentina, giving me a great opportunity to see just how short Messi is. I was sitting right next to the team mascots, reporters, and a youth soccer team fully dressed and ready to get called in to the game. We once again went into half time up 1-0, and then let the lead slip away and ended up losing 1-2. Messi looked like he was giving 50% throughout the game, but still had a number of fancy foot moves, assists, and almost scored on a one on one break away with the keeper. After the game a reporter from Fox Sports came up to the Sarmiento brothers and I and interviewed us. I didn’t say anything but I was behind the mascot cheesing and chanting Co-lom-bia, Co-lom-bia!

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If you ever find yourself at a Colombian soccer game there are three expressions that you will need to know: errrrrdddaaaa, nojoddaaaaa, and hijueputa. Use them carefully!