Am I in Philly or Barranquilla?

I finally went to my first Colombian soccer game last Thursday (Playoffs) and it was well worth waiting for.  The team in Barranquilla, Junior, finished the season at the top of the table so hopes were high during the quarterfinal match.  The whole city got in on the action as everyone was wearing red and white, Juniors colors, and the busses to the stadium were more crowded than usual.  Once at the stadium we joined the pilgrimage, to the entrance, which consisted of thousands of sweaty bodies shoving and getting shoved to the front of the line.  There we were told  that we could not bring inside cameras or belts for safety reasons  (luckily one of my host brothers told me this so I brought neither).  So after being part of a mob that was relentlessly shoving, being asked to hand over any camera or belt, and passing through two separate pat down stations, I began to realized how crazy the Junior fans are and it brought back great memories of times spent at Philly sporting events.

Once in your section, the seating was general admissions so my host brothers and I met some gringo friends and sat down.  From that moment there was not any end to the cheering/yelling fans until we got back on the bus to go home.  Sounds included tons of cheering for Junior and even booing when players made mistakes (wow! how Philly esque), air horns (the man behind me had one and it was literally going off in my ear), two bands (they attend every home game never stop playing and lead the Junior songs), and vendors hissing (like trying to get the attention of a cat...psssss....pssss....pssss) to try and sell whatever it was they had.  

Half time was definitely the most entertaining part of the game as there was a huge fight in the crowd and suddenly around 1,000 fans rushed up the bleachers to avoid the conflict.  Minutes later, the police arrived and attempted to rip a group of men apart.  One man stood out from the rest, as he was still throwing punches with his torn shirt, when the police were man-handling him.  Another deja vu back to Philadelphia.  After half time the announcer said something I didn't quite catch and when asking for clarification it turns out that the Junior goalie and a player on the other team started to fight on the way to the locker room and were both given red cards.  The game ended in a 2-2 tie, but Juniors moved on because aggregate and are now in the semis.  However, yesterday they played the first leg and lost 3-0 so the dream season may be over this Wednesday unless they pull of a miracle.     

Side note:  Counterfeit tickets are such a problem that Junior have gone away from the paper tickets and now hand out stitched tickets, that appear like really itchy over sized tags in a shirt.  I guess they skipped out on the whole barcode phenomena......  

Ticket

Until Next Time!