Super Chivos 3 – Cremas 2

The last time I was here in Guatemala I managed to make it to two soccer games. The first was against a team unknown to me. I went, I watched, I went home. The second game I went to was against Municipal, one of two teams from Guatemala City (think Yankees). To be honest, I don’t remember much of this game, but what I do remember is this:

• Bottle rockets being shot from the bleachers at the field
• All trash (100%, no lie) was thrown on the field…generally for no rhyme or reason.
• There were not enough seats so we sat on the stadium wall, so if we had leaned back we would have fallen out of the stadium and onto the concrete outside.
• We went to the game to learn all kinds of new and fun words that they don’t teach you in Spanish class.
• The other team’s mascot was burned in effigy.

This time the game was a bit different but still just as incredible. We were set to play Los Comunicaciones (Crema) which are also from Guatemala City. I’m not sure what the stakes were last time but this time they were quite high. With the season winding down both teams needed a win to remain in the top 6 (playoff bound), with the defending champions – Crema – looking for payback from their previous meeting. Here is how the game compared to last time around:

• Bottle rockets being shot from the bleachers at the field.
• All trash (100%) was thrown on the field. However, with no alcoholic drinks allowed in the stadium and the soda served in plastic bags with a straw, this did not amount to much. To make up for the lack off trash, fans used toilet paper (which is generally in short supply here) instead. Added bonus was that the bottle rockets were also used to ignite the toilet paper.
• The wall where we’d sat previously was now covered with advertisements, how American.
• We went to the game to learn all kinds of new and fun words that they don’t teach you in Spanish class.
• The other teams mascot was not burned in effigy; instead I saw a Super Chivos fan with a ram’s head (a chivo) hanging from his neck. Yes, this was an actual ram’s head.
• Before the game began, two unmanned hot air balloons were launched into the air. The first kept going up, up, up and away…who knows where it came down. The second got a nasty gust of wind when it was only 50 meters off the field and caught fire. Naturally it began to rain fireballs but luckily no one was standing below and the toilet paper was at the other end of the field.

The game was extremely close the entire night. Crema scored first followed immediately by Xelaju. The score stayed at 1-1 until sometime through the second half when we scored again, mere minutes later our goalie failed to chase down the ball, leaving the goal untended for an easy pot-shot by Crema with 15 minutes or so left to play. Finally, with the time on the clock reading 40 minutes Xelaju was awarded a penalty kick. We scored, everyone cheered, and we were showered in “illegal” beer by the people behind.

Next thing I knew, I thought I was back in America watching the NFL as the official ordered a redo because the player kicking the ball crossed the line too soon. Throughout the night I had been getting tutored in vocabulary by a nice lady who was only too happy to oblige. The words that were coming out of peoples mouths at this point were so incredibly numerous that we simply could not keep up with our translations. After a few moments, we kicked again, scored again, and Jill and I were showered in beer again. A few minutes later, proudly wearing my new Super Chivos jersey to go with the hat I have back in the States, we walked out champions.