Soccer is a dangerous sport ., . . for the fans!

Sunday was another adventurous day. A member of Parker’s host family and a friend of his took 6 of us with them to Guatemala City to attend a soccer game. I know practically nothing about soccer, but since it is such a big part of the culture across Latin America, I decided it would be a great idea for me to go. The 2 teams playing were the Rojos (Red) and the Cremas (White), which are apparently big rivals. Since we know nothing about the teams, we adopted the favorite of Parker’s family: the Cremas.

We knew we were in for a little excitement when we were parking the van and saw a crowd of people wearing white on the verge of a riot on the street outside the stadium. By the time we got out of the car, rocks had been thrown into the stadium and police had come. The crowd ran, and the police pursued and shot off a couple of rounds of tear gas (at least we think that is what it was). It quickly drifted to us and we had to head in the other direction to escape it. I’m glad we weren’t any closer because it was some pretty horrible stuff to inhale!

Once we got inside the stadium, we learned that this is the home stadium of the Rojos. Their fans have the majority of the stadium, and a section at the end is reserved for the opposing team. There are separate entrances based on which team you are for and barricades inside the stadium in an attempt to keep the fans separated. The Crema fans were the ones who had been in the street, and they were pretty energetic inside the stadium as well. It wasn’t long before some of them started climbing up the fence between the stands and the field. Barbed wire was no deterrent for them. They took some red shirts with them and set them on fire as a symbol against the Rojo team. Before and during the game, fans on both sides were setting off fireworks. Rojo fans were mainly setting ones that created a red smoke. Crema fans were usually throwing loud ones over the fence onto the track around the field.

At halftime, there were several crazy fights in the stands. I am not sure what that was all about, because it was among Crema fans. No alcohol was allowed in the stadium, so that wasn’t the problem. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, which seemed a little anti-climactic to me. However, that may have been for the best since any other ending would have been likely to incite further incidents. As we were leaving the stadium amidst the crowd of Crema fans, more fights broke out (rocks were thrown, etc.) and we had to hurry away toward the van. As we were reaching the van, more tear gas was used. We saw an ambulance go toward that area. The craziest part is that all of this is very normal to them, and none of the crazy things done inside the stadium seemed to cause any concern for the police or the security guards. Seeing firsthand the effect that soccer can have on people has given me an interesting perspective on the culture.