Footie

Total double whammy blog-a-rama today guys! A few weeks ago i went to the football here and i wrote all about it and then forgot to post it up. It was great fun and i´m going back on Sunday to see the derby, can´t wait. I bought a scarf last time and everything, because they do a red and yellow one which are the Bogotá city colours, so obviously the Jags fan in me absolutely had to get one. I go with my pal who´s a St Mirren fan, flying the flag for crap Scottish football 2,600 metres up the Andes!

So, football:
Bogota´s El Campín stadium is home to both Independiente Santa Fé and Millonarios, as well as the national squad. Games are playes on Wednesday and Saturday at this 40,000 seater ground, with "El Clasico" or the derby between rivals Santa Fé and Millonarios attracting a full capacity and a famously charged atmosphere. The stadium has its own Transmilenio stop and is easily reached by buseta or taxi, and upon arrival on a match day you are quickly surrounded by a vast crowd of fans queing for their preferred seats.

At a Millonarios game the entire area is covered in a sea of blue and white as fans proudly display their team colours on shirts, scarves, hats and jackets. Upon entering the stadium you are faced with rows and rows of shiny plastic seats (those in the know bring inflatable cushions as these seats become rather tiring and uncomfortable during the course of 90 minutes) thronged with vendors selling water, cigarettes, chocolate and long sticks of bread with cheese in them which are a typical match-day food.

The most fanatical fans of Millonarios sit behind the goals on the north side of the stadium, and begin singing and pogo-ing hours before kick-off. The groups of supporters are called "barras" and each one brings an enormous flag bearing the name of their group, some with allegiance to certain areas of the city, others referring to the superior quality of their team´s football, and they drape them over the back walls of the stadium so that nothing in sight isn´t blue and white.
When the home team runs out onto the pitch the whole stadium explodes in a frenzy of whistles, shouts, ticker tape and vast plumes of blue and white smoke, as cheerleaders grin and twirl pom-poms and form themselves into precarious pyramids. While the players battle it out on the pitch the fans shout criticisms of the opposing team and of the unfortunate referee, in between arguing with their neighbours about the forthcoming national team selections, while small boys make the team newsletter into paper aeroplanes and hurl them over the tops of the terraces to glide over the heads of the fans and land at the feet of the never-tiring cheerleaders.

At half time the hot dog stands are mobbed by hungry fans, and the stands become a hotbed of tactical discussion. By the beginning of the second half night has fallen and the huge spotlights render the pitch a glowing green, as the Bogotá drizzle floats down over the players and the lights of the city twinkle in the dark under the illuminated neon gaze of the monastery of Monserrate perched high on the mountainside.

When the whistle blows the sodden players make their way to the dressing room for reprimands or congratulations, and the fans gingerly maneouvre their cars out of the packed car parks among throngs of fans, and they listen to replays and analysis of the match all over again on the drive home.