Welcome to the Jungle, Spain

(There are more pictures in the Spain v. Argentina album under 'Photos')

Call in the cavalry. The school has been taken over, and there is no end in sight. Originally the students were going to hold their lockout for only last Thursday, but it's successfully gone on for over a week now. Call Roger Goodell - he could get some negotiation practice in. From what I understand, they're protesting the conditions of the facilities, and the fact that a good portion of government money is going to private institutions when UBA building projects have been left unfinished due to lack of funds. I can't understand why they would be protesting the state of the facilities with all of the peeling paint, broken desks, and missing window panes. However, the students running the September Revolution did not want class to stop, so they thoughtfully provided desks and chairs for us to use outside. In the street. So after waiting around for several minutes listening to some guys standing on tables trying to connect profs with students, we finally found ours and set up shop in a crosswalk. As I was walking over, I was sure that a different professor was handing out midterms to his students as they took their seats in the street. If that profesor wanted to win popularity points, that's definitely not how the Xs and Os tell you to do it. Needless to say, my profesora was far from happy about being kicked out of the building and wound up cutting class short just because she couldn't deal with it.

That evening saw me don a knock-off Argentine jersey and travel with the masses to the River Plate stadium in the northern reaches of the city to watch la selección nacional (literally translated as 'national selection,' which I think is a great term, but really means national soccer team) take on Spain. Security might not be the stadium's strong point, since I completely bypassed stage 1 without even knowing it. I walked along some quiet residential streets before turning onto the main street leading to the stadium and finding myself already beyond the first pat-down and bag check which had a line a couple blocks long. Alright then, here we go!

We found our seats, but not after having to ask someone where they were. Not that we would be sitting much anyway. The section letters were chalked onto the ground, and there were no row numbers. So after counting the rows and checking the seat numbers, we found ourselves twelve rows back from one of the corners. Not bad for $35 US. You couldn't even walk into Fenway for that. We were also luckily right over the visiting players tunnel, so we got some close up views of all of the Spanish stars that were there- Casillas, Torres, Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta, Villa, Alonso, and more.

After coming to grips with the fact that yes, I was actually seeing who I thought I was seeing, I noticed the barbed wire fencing around our section. The people seemed nice enough in my section so far, but I think that if Argentina found itself down 2-0 with a hostile ref Dr. Jekyll would disappear and the Argentine extended family of Mr. Hyde would make an appearance. I looked up to the second deck, and there was fencing around another section which I was told was the visiting team's fan section for River Plate's games. Apparently for River games, you have to wait 45min before you can leave the stadium so the opposing team's fans can get a head start. Run, Forrest, run.

The game was everything that I could have asked for, with Messi striking first in the 12th minute with a little chip that floated right over the keeper (not Casillas, unfortunately) into the goal. Higuain doubled the score with a goal three minutes later that saw him come celebrate with a massive fist pump in our corner. Do I need to say that the stadium was absolutely rocking by that point? Tevez closed the half with a third goal for Argentina, making it 3-0, which basically ended the game. Argentina wound up winning 4-1, with a spectacular show put on by Messi during the second half. He made the World Champion Spanish defense look like 3rd grade soccer players as he dribbled straight through about 5 or 6 defenders and set up a beautiful strike into the upper right hand corner from a forward making a run. And the line ref had the audacity to call him offside. It was still probably some of the most beautiful play I've ever seen, though. I mean, the defense knows what Messi can do, they know he can run, they stick 5 guys on him when he gets the ball, but he still destroys them anyway. And this is Spain we're talking about here.

For my first international soccer game, it couldn't have been better. I need to go see a club game now - I hear they're more intense (it was actually pretty quiet for stretches - no continuous chanting or singing like Japan) than when the national team plays. That seems a little counterintuitive, but then again a lot of things don't make sense here. But no matter - Vamos Argentina!