Football Fixture: River Plate vs Atletico Tucuman

When in Argentina it would be rude not to go to a football match. River Plate were playing Atletico Tucuman so we arranged through our hostel to go – cue the dodgiest tour we’ve ever booked!

We were picked up on an old school bus with a whistling suspension three hours before the match to allow us time to get in.. then told by the guide to not speak once we got off the bus so people didn’t suspect we were not Argentinian. The fact that we looked like the biggest group of European tourists with our cameras and no football shirts like the 1000s of other fans appeared to escape him. Oh and also Nav was supposed to be Xavier according to his season ticket and Laura was supposed to be Roderigos (it turns out that only members have tickets to games).

Needless to say, we were stopped at security…. after a few ‘conversations’ with the security and the police, our so called guide negotiated our entrance.

Once in the stadium, it was absolutely incredible! The away side are not allowed to attend the match so the whole stadium was filled with River Plate fans. The atmosphere was electric – the fans sang from start to finish and it bounced from one side of the stadium to the other. When they scored, the stadium erupted, but when Tucuman scored it was silent. We have never experienced anything like it.

But what struck us most was despite the chaos and chanting, there were so many young children with their families at the game.

P.s. Spot the photo bomber!