Okay, we thought we were going to a very tightly contested match today in the Argentine Primera Dvision between hosts San Lorenzo de Almargo and visit
or Velez Sarsfield (who are in first place right now). Amazingly, there are about 10 of the 20 teams in the Primera Division that hail from Buenos Aires...what passion and support for the sport of soccer!We were met by Alejandro, the women's coach of San Lorenzo at the stadium in Buenos Aires. We went to the game a couple of hours early to check out the stadium and get some seats. We witnessed the community feeling of the club (the supporters were very nice to us), we met some of the members of the women's team that we will play on Friday, we saw the hanging of the signs, the throwing of the "papelitos" (little papers) at the "entrada" of the home team (the entrance), the singing of songs....a fire that broke out near us...the EXTREME agitation of the visiting team and, finally, the CANCELLATION of the match....ouch!
Tragically, it appears that a member of the Velez team's visiting supporters was injured or murdered on the way to the game (not too close to the stadium). And they were very upset by this and tried to break down the fence between their section and the field. If you look at the pictures...you'll see 1) the stadium, which holds about 40,000 people. 2) a San Lorenzo supporter climbing on barbed-wire fence to hang his sign. 3) The visiting section of the Velez supporters. 4) The fire that broke out underneath where the supporters were next to us in the stands. 5) The policia spraying the Velez fans with water in order to calm them down and escort them out of the stadium.
We were never in any danger, but it was said to see the joyous, passionate display of the love of soccer and one's community just destroyed in one small moment. We have some pretty amazing video and will try to get that posted.
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