Last Sunday afternoon I went to "El Clasico"--a soccer game between the two biggest teams in Paraguay. Traditionally, it can become dangerous, because the fans want to badly for their team to win. So we got the slightly more expensive tickets a little farther away from the danger, and paid close attention to who we were near and when. We planned to go to the stadium an hour early, but got a text from a friend saying the area where our tickets were for was filling up--fast! So we practically ran the 10-12 blocks to the stadium, and in the process of searching for two side-by-side seats, a friend of my friend noticed us and had two seats. (Thank you, Lord!!) We got to sit right at mid-field, and had a great view of the entire game.
The fans for Cerro Porteño, all on one half of the field.
The fans of Olympia, all on the other half of the field.
I was told the tickets across the field from us don't sell as much because if it's sunny, you're in the sun the entire game.
Cerro getting ready to start the game. At the bottom of the picture are a few policemen.
The game ended in a tie: 0-0. That's right.
The first El Clasico (back in August) ended in a tie as well: 1-1.
The reason they can end in a tie, is that this is a months-long tournament with other teams here in the country. If the score is different, the winner gets 3 points, and the loser gets 1 point to add to their tally. If they tie, they each get 1 point to add to their tally. On the positive side, since each team got 1 point added, and no one won the game, there really wasn't any violence at the end of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment