dale y dale y dale bulla dale!

Sunday I went to my first South American futbol game. It was madness.

The teams:

We went to see a game between la Universidad de Chile (la U) vs. Cobrecoa (some team from far away). Clarification - the "University of Chile" team is not like a college team. They are just a club team that bears the university name (weird yes, but that is how it is done). So most of the clubs represent different regions of the country, but Santiago is so big that it has three teams:

1) La Universidad de Chile (La U)

La U is a competitive team. Not as good as Colo-Colo, but better than La Catolica. Their mascot (?) is an owl, or a "buho," and their fans are referred to as "el leon" (the lion - for the roaring noise they make) or "la bulla" (the ruckus).

2) La Universidad Catolica

Not many people care about La Catolica. They aren't as good as the other two teams and their jerseys aren't as fun. But they still deserve some love.

3) Colo-Colo (los indios)

Colo-Colo apparently has the best players. They are called "los indios" (the indians) apparently because that is their mascot. However, down here they sometimes call darker-skinned people "indios" so I think that has something to do with it too. They also have the crazy flaite (gangster) fans, who I was really hoping to hang out with for an afternoon; but alas, my time is running out down here and I had scheduling conflicts with the Colo-Colo games that remain. Tragic.

Whenever any of those three teams play each other, the neighborhood surrounding Estadio Nacional basically shuts down in preparation for an afternoon of all-out gang fights. Would have liked to have seen that. But I also value my life and my well-being...so it's probably better that I missed those games.

The game:

We walk in and got patted down by the police. The 5 or so girls who were at the stadium were directed to female police officers - probably a smart way to avoid sexual harassment claims. 

Then we were greated by more police (el paco). AKA - the G.I. Joes all geared out and carrying shields (not shown in this pic). The police know what to expect and these games and they come prepared. They have a team in the stadium on foot, a team surrounding the stadium on horseback and a team on the streets driving a tank called a "guanaco" (name for a llama-like animal) that spits "spicy" water at rowdy crowds. I don't know what spicy water means, but I don't think I want to find out.

Then we went to our seats. We sat in the lame family section with all the kids and such because our overprotective chilean friends didn't want us to get hurt or get stuff stolen in the crowds. So instead, we just watched the crowds from far away (see in the distance).

Being far away had its perks. We could actually hear each other speak, so Daniel and Felipe educated us about all things futbol, including the millions of cheers and chants, such as "dale y dale y dale bulla dale" (which I think means something like "make lots of noise, crowd" or "let's get ready to rumble" or something of the sort.)

 We also had a direct view of all of the signs and such that the crowd held up, such as this sweet jersey:

And these awesome fire torches (which were ocassionally thrown on the track, aiming for the policemen)

All in all, an adrenaline-filled event. Maybe one day I'll make it into the bulla. But I definitely won't go in there without a male companion.