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Boca Juniors vs River Plate.
this match is the biggest fixture in the south american football calender. it is among the fiercest rivalries in world football and we were fortunate enough to of been in mendoza to watch it. they play each other 4times a year. twice in the argentine leauge at labonbonera and monumental and then twice and choice venues in argentina.
we got a taxi to the stadium about 15mins away from our hostel with the swedish guys and nicolas the chilean. we were sat in the boca section (as both sets of fans are well separated) as we reached the steps looking over the stadium we could see a mass huddle at one end of the pitch of crazy fanatical boca fans, they were jumping up and down and singing with flags and banners and firecrackers. wow.
eventually we got to our stand, it was close to the hardcore crazy Boca fans. we have plenty of pictures and videos.itwas about an hour to kick off and the pre match antics of the fans was as much a part of the experience as the actual game. water cannons were fired into each end of the stadium into the fanatical supporters. At the other end of the stadium the River supporters were jumping up and down waving their banners and chanting towards the Boca fans. as the teams came out the stadium erupted, fireworks went off and huge flags appeared from nowhere in the Boca section, they were waving their arms towards the river fans and chanting in unison. the whole experience at that time was incredible, as some people would know this is a match i have always wanted to watch since i was about 12 and started taking an interest in world football. we were both loving it!
oppotunist mat took a video just as Boca had a freekick after about 15mins, and just like that they scored to make it 1-0. very happy we have that moment on video as the Boca fans as you can imagine went mental!
River started to come back into the match much more, Boca were missing their talisman Juan Roman Riquelme (on international duty) and by half time river were 3-1 up.
after the break boca pulled it back to 2-3 pretty early on, thanks to a penalty. mat was in the toilet so i got a video of that. both teams were reduced to 10men at this point aswell!
the match drew to a close and boca eventually went down 2-3. it was a very good game with lots of good football. about 100x better than queensland roar vs sydney fc!
throughout the whole match the boca hardcores had not stopped singing at all, except for half time. the flags,banners,flares,singing,drums,firecrackers,fanatics all made this an experience we will never forget. one of the best highlights of my travels so far. it WAS mat's highlight of these travels.
Tomorrow we are off to Buenos Aries in a pretty swish bus (still v.cheap) we have had a great time in Mendoza and met some very nice people. the international drinking game of ring of fire has been played alot. gav,steve,sleeth,harris,rich will be pleased to know.
more blogs to come soon, enjoy the pics and vids. hasta luego. Alex
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