Mark's Minutes: Boca Juniors Game!

"La Mitad Más Uno (Half Plus One)”, a popular motto of the Boca Juniors football club means that more than half of Argentinian soccer fans will always root for Boca, instead of other local teams. It is a proud slogan and Suzy and I decided to see their skill first-hand. 

Luckily we had mentioned to our friend Xavier in Mendoza that we were planning to see a Boca game. He himself is a fanatico (fan) of Boca Juniors and promised to get us in touch with his son, who could get us tickets. Boca game tickets sell out at the beginning of the season and most tickets come in form of season passes that are passed down from generation to generation within the family. To our excitement, while we were in Uruguay, we got news that we could get tickets for the Copa Libertadores game just a few days away. Even better Xavier let us know that he would attend the game with us. So we rushed back from Uruguay via boat and checked into our standard six-bed dormitory. Maybe the excitement for the game made Suzy seasick. We will never know, but exciting it certainly was.

After hunting down discounted jerseys from last year, we met Xavier, his son Martin, and their friend Victoria in front of Hotel Republica and drove in Xavier's Argentinian Air Force pickup truck to the game which is located in the La Boca barrio.  I can't lie; driving around in an official government vehicle in a foreign country is more fun than sitting in a cab. We made it to the match with plenty of time to watch the stadium slowly fill up. 

The ultra fans had arrived well before us and were already chanting their battle hymns and swinging their banners.

The challenging team was Club Deportivo Palestino de Chile. The team originates from Palestinian immigrants who founded one of Chile's most prestigious social and athletic clubs in Santiago. Today Santiago has the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East. And in the first half of the game they proved to be a tough opponent to the local team. We could see the local Boca fans bite their nails over some bad passing and miss-communication among the players. Boca had already qualified for the next round of the Copa Libertadores, but the Chilean team needed to win to advance. Subsequently they had the better chances in the first half but no goals.

In the second half Boca showed more strength and created a lot more chances, which eventually resulted in two goals, one that was during the last moments of extra time. Due to the hard-fought win the home crowd left the stadium even more ecstatic than they had arrived. The visiting fans buried their heads in disbelief that their team had just gotten eliminated from the tournament. All throughout the game, Suzy and I danced and jumped along to the chants of the fans. We figured that learning to sing the songs for the next game would make for a fun way to learn Spanish... the insults and cuss words at least.

On the way home we each grabbed Argentinian style chorizo sausages on a bun, drove home, and shared a refreshment with the other hostel travelers to celebrate Boca's victory.

How to get Boca tickets: At the hostel (Puerto Limon Hostel) tickets were being sold for 1000 Pesos. Organized tours through Landing Pad BA run you US$ 135. Be careful: we heard that false tickets are being sold around the stadium.