NO ME FALLES, YO NUNCA TE HE FALLADO

Sunday morning I went to my very first live football match (soccer game for my Americans readers). I was very excited to see what happens at a spanish sporting event. Americans take their tailgating pretty seriously, myself included, but unfortunately this tradition hasn’t quite made it across the pond. There is of course a bit of “pregaming”, beers and disgustingly fattening food is sold and consumed at trucks surrounding the stadium.

I was told that this game was not the complete experience because it was at noon on Sunday, instead of later in the day. Apparently, as I’ve previously experienced since I’ve been here, the Spanish are not morning people. And noon on Sunday is just too early for the beticos (Betis fans) to get going. The fans were pretty dead for the first half of the game, except the one section called aficionados (I think), who are comparable to bleacher creatures at Yankee Stadium. They were on their feet singing and cheering and cursing the whole game. Speaking of which, I learned a few new words during this game, none of which I are appropriate to repeat here.

By the second half, people had woken up a little more, or recovered from their hangover from the night before, and the crowd livened up a bit. The game also got a little more interesting. Real sociedad (the bad guys) had two goals and Betis had none. In my opinion, Betis was controlling the game just couldn’t get the ball in the net. But what do I know about soccer.

Finally, Betis scored two goals to tie the game and everyone was going crazy. Did I mention they haven’t won a game in the past 8 games? Well they haven’t, so this was an exciting opportunity for them. It appeared as though they would at least tie. But then in the very last minute, a real sociedad player launched the ball towards the Betis goal in a last ditch effort (is that the right phrase) to win the game, and miraculously the ball flew right over every Betis players’ head, including the goalie, and landed right in the net. It was a pretty incredible shot but I wish the bad guys did not score it. I was pretty sad to see Betis lose, everyone in the stadium just sat in their seats in awe/crying.

Go to 3:26 in this video if you want to see the shot.

poor betis:(

Even though they lost, I think I have officially been converted into a Betis fan. Te quiero Betis.

**side note—the name of this post is part of a song the beticos sing during the game. I cannot remember the rest of it for the life of me.