Football!!!

I have been to my first football match.

Those of you that know me will appreciate what an unusal thing this is for me to have done, but there. It sounded an interesting prospect - and it was!!!!

The match was the semi final between Xela, and Municipal, the best team from the capital city. We were the underdogs, and were all set to get slaughtered. With Xela being the second city in Guatemala (so, something like Birmingham inthe UK), I was expecting quite a large stadium. I was surprised.

The stadium was really small, and featured {stands{ of the type that I understand were dispensed with shortly after the Hillsborough disaster. Separating the spectators from the pitch was a high, barbed wire fence. It all looked rather dangerous and painful. We got there are half 4 in the atfernoon, so ensure a decent seat. Although, truth be told, the stadium was so small, none of the stands were more than 10m from the pitch. Our spot was just a couple of metres from the goal.

I think I may have mentioned here before how much the Guatemalans love their fireworks. Every morning I am woken by fireworks at about 6am resulting from the Guatemalan tradition of waking up birthday boys and girls with a number of explosions outside their bedroom windows. Well, they had come well prepared to the football match too. As the time of the match (8pm) approached, the crowd became more and more excited. Almost everyone had got a few fireworks in their pocket, and were lobbing them around willy nilly. At one point, a largish fire started in the stands at the other end of the stadium. No-one seemed particularly bothered, and none of the officials even went over. I learnt afterwards that the fire was put out by a small child, who used the numerous bottles of urine (no toilets here, just some handfuls of straw against the wall at the back of the stands, fortunately, I wasn{t compelled to use this ´facility´!) to douse the flames.

Finally the match begun, and the firework throwing increased accordingly. Sometimes the visibility on the pitch went down to about half a metre, and players continued valiantly with catherine wheels and rockets dancing at their feet, and clouds of acrid smoke whirling around their heads.

There was plenty of action on the pitch, with about 10 yellow cards, and 2 red cards. It{s the first time in my football watching life (yeah, alright, I know that doesn{t amount to much) that I have seen a goalie sent off! Unfortunately this altercation happened at the opposite end of the pitch, so I couldn{t see what had happened. There was much disatisfaction, and lobbing of fireworks in the general direction of the ref, as our goalie was escorted from the pitch.

At half time, a large number of riot police came onto the pitch, and my teacher told me that this is necessary to protect the refs. The police held up their shields to protect the refs, and helped them off the pitch. The reverse happened again in the second half.

It was a great night for Xela, as despite not having a goalie, and several maimed players, Xela managed to been Municipal 2-0. The crowd went wild, more fireworks were thrown, and there was much rejoicing.

A most entertaining experience. Although not necessarily one I will repeat!