Marcel and Alejandro, Nacional loyalists, and a friend, Francisco, found some premium midfield seats in the thick of the crowd at Montevideo's second largest stadium, Parque Central.
In a frenzied crescendo, the crowd figuratively and literally exploded when their team burst from the inflatable entry tunnel. Flares were flaming, flags were waving, and rocketing spirals of sparks split the night in thunderous cracks!
Men, women and children chanted cheers that echoed across the pitch in a unifying force, while, somewhere, in the corner of the stadium, protected by police and barbed wire, a small contigent of Necaxa fans had their hopes to be heard completely drowned out.
From the opening kick, the noise never stopped.
Within moments, the anticipation turned to celebration, and the decibels doubled.
Nacional took the lead, 1-0, and the exuberance was obvious on the faces of fans.
Play resumed, and the battle had begun. Necaxa answered to tie the game.
Nacional scored again, fans went wild, but their chanting and gesticulating was again nipped quickly when Necaxa replied to draw the score even, 2-2.
But, in the eyes of Nacional fans, they were not being beaten by Mexico's stellar play. They were running into a roadblock in a black shirt and shorts who held a little flag--this enemy is known as the sideline judge. His job is to award possession when the ball goes out of bounds, and to determine when attackers are off-sides--soccer's one and only confusing rule, a critical call or non-call that often determines if a team has a scoring opportunity. Now, referees are human, and fans want but don't expect perfection, and they understand that sometimes, it's just a close call. But, when repeated and obvious calls continue to go against their team by one particular official...the people protest with vile behavior and criticism unbecoming of quotes. Although, this is the best time to learn some Spanish slang, I was disgusted by the amount of spit projected through the fence at the sideline judge, and the reprehensible language falling on the ears of children. But, I had to agree with the fans, that this referee made multiple mistakes that stifled several attempts of Nacional's well executed offense.
At game's end, as always is the case for officials regardless of the final score, this judge was hustled out, hidden by a ring of riot cops, like a calf surrounded by water buffalo passing a hungry pride of lions.
Despite this unexpected adversary, the game raged on with Nacional scoring a third goal in the 80th minute. They held on for victory, 3-2!
Some new friends of mine posed in the moment of triumph!
Exiting and thinking of Leandra, who was unable to attend, I asked a police officer to give a grin for a gringo. Women make up a large percentage of the police force in Uruguay! As for Nacional, a week later they would visit Mexico City to defeat Necaxa again, 1-0, and qualify for the quarter-finals! After an initial loss to Cúcuta Deportivo, the qualifier from Colombia, Nacional was winning 2-1 a week later in Montevideo, when Cúcuta scored a last minute goal to force a draw...and cost Nacional the victory points they needed to move on to the semi-finals. But, already, Nacional has qualified--along with fellow Uruguyan clubs Defensor, Danubio, and Wanderers--to participate in the next Copa Libertadores this fall! Futbol never stops!
1 comment:
We'll do better this time, especially if we ditch our horrible, horrible coach.
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