Club Deportivo Palestino – Club de Deportes Cobresal (11-01-2015)

 

After the disappointing first try at seeing a game in Chile we took no chances for the second game. During the day we purchased tickets for Ps 5.000 (ca. $8) at a Ticketpro desk in a big department store in downtown Chile. Normally I hate to do this, as it means you get a standard ticket, but I did not want to take any risks with this game, as on the program was my most anticipated visit of the whole year: CD Palestino.

 

I had come across CD Palestino a couple of months earlier, when they got into trouble with the Chilean Football Association over the use of the map of Palestine as the number one on their jerseys. As there is little that I like more than the interplay between football and politics, I had to go and see a home game of CD Palestino. We took the metro from downtown to La Cisterna, a commune in the south of Santiago. From the metro station we still had to walk a good 15 minutes through the blistering heat.

After walking another 5 minutes around the grounds, we finally arrive at the entrance of the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna, a peculiar looking site. We are greeted by a huge Palestinian flag. After the obligatory check of identity papers, and confusion about my foreign passport, we enter the ground and the clubhouse with the club logo and map of Palestine.

 

Excited we get to the small stand, which is old and at best half full. The eat is brutal so I buy a CD Palestino hat. Inside the clubhouse they also sell the now infamous CD Palestino jersey and although they don’t have XXL (virtually no store in Chile has XXL), I buy a too tight XL just as a souvenir (and an encouragement that one day I should fit in this shirt).

 

Despite the poor attendance and infrastructure CD Palestino plays in the highest division in Chile, the Primera División del Fútbol Profesional Chileno. Today they face CD Cobresal, which comes from the small copper mining town of Cobresal, located at an elevation of more than 2.400 meters in the Andes mountains, ca. 1,000 km (0r 600 miles) north of Santiago. Fun fact: although Cobresal has only 7.000 inhabitants, its football stadium can hold almost three times as many people. Guess it is never sold out.

 

I estimate that there are ca. 1,000 people in the stadium, of which some 200 are away fans (who probably live in Santiago). The people are mostly working class, but have no specific ethnic background. So, while the club itself is run by Chileans of Palestinian descent, the fans tend to be primarily ‘ordinary’ Chileans, who probably support the team because of the location. Many seem to know each other and come with the whole family – there are a lot of women in the stadium. 

 

Incidentally, the Palestinian community in Chile is the largest outside of the Middle East and is relatively old – the first Palestinian immigrants arrived in the 1850s (!) and well-off. Most of the original Palestinian immigrants were Christian, which makes the relationships with contemporary Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict complex. Moreover, despite the conflict with the Chilean Football Association, there were no indications of a political agenda in the stadium. No slogans, no flags, not even the routine Keffiyeh (or ‘Arafat scarf’).

 

The level of the game is not bad. The movement is slow, but it is extremely hot (at least 35 degrees and sunny). The visitors are the better team even though the hosts get the better half-chances in the first 30 minutes of the game.

In the 30^th minute a Palestino corner leads to several almost shots. Five minutes later a great through pass puts a Palestino striker alone in front of the goalie, but he saves. Two minutes later there is a much needed drink break, after which Cobresal has a great through pass, but their strikers lobs the ball over the goalie… and over the goal.  Half time score: 0-0.

 

After enjoying some Arab music during half time, the only 'Palestinian' aspect of the game, we start the second half with more pressure from Palestino and less effort from Cobresal. This notwithstanding, the first chance is for the visitors, in the 60^th minute, when a short from the edge of the penalty box is well placed and well saved. Five minutes later they head a corner just wide.

 

Around the 70^th minute a Palestino counter attack almost leads to a Cobresal own goal. In the next two minutes the hosts have two more chances, but no goal. Palestino is by now dominating the game, without creating many real chances. The strikers are getting more desperate and a Schwalbe (dive) in the box is met with a free kick against them. Five minutes before the end the visitors get a rare break, after a defender badly misses the ball, and score from 12 meter: 0-1 (Cobresal’s second shot on goal in the second half). Despite another Schwalbe in the box, this time punished with a yellow card, the hosts loose the game. The fans seem unbothered by it.

In the end the most extraordinary thing about this game was that it was so ordinary. CD Palestino is just another small football club in the relatively poor Chilean First Division. While its colors, flag, and name have huge significance around the world, they seem devoid of any political meaning in Santiago itself. Still, definitely worth a visit, if you ever find yourself in Santiago!

Club Universidad de Chile – O’Higgins FC (10-01-2015)

Nothing more perfect than being able to combine a business trip with some groundhopping, particularly if it is in a new country. So, despite having landed at 10 AM, after a red-eye flight with little sleep, I was extremely excited to go with my friend C. to the Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos in Chile’s capital city Santiago to see my first game. C. does not really go to football games, so he had asked a colleague, a ‘football expert’ whether we needed to buy tickets in advance. He had said we didn’t, and that made sense as Chilean games are hardly ever sold out.

 

As we get closer to the stadium we see more and more people wearing the shirt of home team Universidad de Chile, one of Chile’s biggest teams. I see no people wearing the shirt of the visitors O’Higgins, even though they come from a town that is only 87 km south of Santiago (this is nothing for Chile, which is, North to South, 4.300 km long)! Now, I know what you are thinking: O’Higgins, really? Fair enough! O’Higgins is neither a team from the Republic of Ireland nor a Chilean team founded by Irish immigrants. In fact, it is named after Bernardo O’Higgins, who was one of the leaders who freed Chile from Spain in the Chilean War of Independence in the early 19^th century.

 

Anyway, back to the game. As we arrive at the stadium, we are told that we cannot buy tickets at the ticket office. However, we can buy tickets but online and then pick them up at the ticket office! Consequently, outside of old tiny ticket office various people are frantically on their smartphone, ordering tickets which they then pick up a yard away at that office. As you need an (Chilean) ID number for each ticket, my friend C can buy only one ticket. I can possibly get one too, but I have to, first, make a profile online and then, second, try to convince the computer that my US driver’s license number also counts as an ID. Might have worked, but they close the online system exactly at kick-off time, and the ticket office a minute earlier, so we and some 10 other people are left outside.

We circle around the stadium a bit, get ripped off with fake tickets, and then learn that Chile is not really Latin America, as they follow the rules even tighter than Dutch or Germans. Conclusion: no game! :-(

That same evening we find out what the rules are: for games of the three biggest teams in Chile, home or away, you can only buy tickets online and you have to use an ID that you can show at the stadium. The big three are all from Santiago: Colo Colo, Universidad Católica, and Universidad de Chile. For all other games you still need an official ID at the stadium, but you normally can buy tickets at the ticket office – in any case, always check out the Ticketpro website, as they have the monopoly on the online tickets, and you can better be safe than sorry (downside: you won’t get a nice ticket).

Charlotte Eagles – Pittsburgh Riverhounds (29-08-2014)

Most lower leagues in the United States play only from June till mid-August. After that there is only the MLS, with just a few teams in this huge country, and the different leagues that try to be the official second division. The USL Pro is the recently renamed top division of the most established league. This not withstanding, the USL Pro is at best semi-pro and many team lack infrastructure and fans.

The Charlotte Eagles play their games at Dickson Field, which is the football stadium of Queens University of Charlotte. It is a beautiful small sports complex for a fairly small university. At the soccer pitch next to the football field are some (mostly Hispanic) youths playing.

I pay $10 for a nice ticket as I walk through the small building to the outside, where there are small bleachers on a hill, then some grass, and only then the pitch. There are some 3-400 people, mostly teens and kids with parents and some local college students. I think I was one of the few over 40 without kids there.

Most people sit on the small bleachers, but many have taken seats and blankets to sit on the lawn. At least 50 kids are just running around and play soccer or ask their parents when the game is over (even though the parents seem to be there for them).

The AstroTurf pitch is quite confusing, with both football and soccer lines, and in a very poor condition. It is not too warm for an August evening in the Southeast. Both teams have mostly non-white players, which are not the usual college kids of lower divisions. 

Still, the play is very mediocre and the pace is slow. There are few chances in the first minutes, as both teams play without much skill or urgency. Charlotte is the better team, but that changes around the 20^th minute, when Pittsburgh gets better. 

In the 32th minute they have a free header after a corner, but it goes far wide. Ten minutes later they score a nice, but offside, goal. Half time score is 0-0 and that is a perfect reflection of the game so far.

The second half is much the same. Fortunately, it has cooled down a bot and oit is now a perfect summer evening, so I don’t mind the boring attempt at football at the pitch. Here is a summary of probably the most exciting ten minutes of the game. In the 60^th minute Charlotte gets a free kick that goes nowhere. Six minutes later a scrimmage in the box almost leads to a Pittsburgh shot at goal. In the 68^th minute Charlotte attack over left, pull the ball back to the penalty spot, but the player misses badly. A minute later a Pitt corner is headed on the crossbar.

In the 75^th minute a Pittsburgh corner is unexpectedly headed in from within a large crowd of players: 0-1. This leads to Charlotte actually pressuring and going after a goal, but there is simply too little tactical and technical capability. Final score: 0-1.

To be honest, it is on nights like these that I see groundhopping primarily as collecting scalps, i.e. new stadiums, as the football part of it can be truly uninspiring – and definitely not worth a 6.5 hour drive back and forth. This USL Pro game looked even worse than some PDL game I have seen. 

FC Carolina Discoveries - Gate City FC (12-07-2014)

At the lower end of the “professional” soccer leagues in the United States the season is very short. Moreover, games are spread over weird periods; for some teams three months, for other five weeks. This all makes it very hard to get to see a game, let alone a game in the Southeast, which is a barren wasteland in terms of decent soccer. This all notwithstanding, I did find a game only some 2 hours away, in Rock Hill, South Carolina! It was the last game of the regular season of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), South Region, South Atlantic Conference (which includes five teams from the two Carolinas).

Although we entered Rock Hill well before kick-off, at 19:00, we arrived a couple of minutes late to the game. The reason was that the game was moved from the usual ground at Manchester Meadows, a classic US soccer complex, to the (American) football stadium of District 3 High School, which actually has a much larger capacity. Not that this was really needed, as there are only some 150 people at the game, including some 25 away fans (which seemed to be almost all linked to the youth team that must have played earlier that day), which had made the ca. 120 miles (200 km) drive south from Greensboro, North Carolina.

We pay $6 each for a nice ticket and find a spot on the, mostly empty, large concrete stand – the smaller stand on the other side of the pitch is closed. The sun is still shining and it’s about 88F/31C with only a slight breeze.

The players look older than the players at the lowest level of the USL, which are mostly college players, who play in the Premier Development League (PDL) during the summer break. The game is played on AstroTurf with the football lines still on it – quite confusing for both the players and viewers.

Gate City FC (GCFC) gets a couple of half decent chances before the Carolina Discoveries goalie hits over the ball and gives the GCFC striker an easy finish in front of an open goal: 0-1. He doesn’t look or play like the real goalie, but rather like a regular player just filling in. In the next 5 minutes the visitors get two more good opportunities but finish weak.

In the 24th minute the home team gets a corner-kick, which is headed back and then headed at the crossbar. Six minutes later a GCFC player lobs the ball over the ‘goalie’ but hits the post –the ‘goalie’ reacts as if the ball is going to go far wide. In the 33th minute the hosts have their first good combination attack, but the GCFC goalie makes a save. Half time: a deserved 1-0 lead for the clearly better visitors.

Five minutes into the second half GCFC gets a penalty: the kick is weak, but the goalkeeper – a new one, who seems to be a real goalie – cannot stop it: 0-2. Three minutes later a terrible mix-up in the GCFC defense brings the hosts back into the game. The goalie kicks over the ball, which seems to be the story of the game, the ball rolls almost over the line, and a Discoveries player kicks it in: 1-2.

In the 64^th minute the visitors’ striker is touched from behind in the penalty box, but the referee doesn't give whistle. In the direct counter-attack the home striker goes down at outside of box and does get a penalty kick: 2-2. Asian gambling syndicate anyone?  

This totally changes the game. In the 77^th minute the Carolina Discoveries have the best combination attack of the game, but the shot hits the post. Two minutes later another complete screw up in the GCFC defense leaves the ball in front of a Discoveries player, who stands at 5 meters of the goal: 3-2. Four minutes later a badly defended ball is rebounded with a volley that goes over the terrible goalkeeper: 4-2. This is followed by virtually the only decent chance of the visitors, but the half-volley is saved by the (real) goalkeeper. In the 88^th minute the game is finished with a Discoveries free-kick that leads to a free header: 5-2.

In the end we saw a crazy game in a very pleasant setting. The football wasn’t particularly good, and there weren’t too many people in the stands, but the weather was nice and the venue promising.

RJS HL Fleurus – Union St-Gilles (16-03-2014)

Having seen an evening game in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the night before, we had to drive long (a bit over 700 km) to make it to Charleroi, Belgium, the next day to be able to see the afternoon game in the Derde Klasse B (Third Division B). Unfortunately, our car ran into major trouble and when we finally made it to Charleroi, we were unable to find the stadium – no one, including the police, knew where we needed to go. This was not that surprising, as Royale Jeunesse Sporting Heppignies-Lambusart-Fleurus, or RJS HL Fleurus, is one of those many merger-teams in the (lower) Belgian divisions. Sadly, I have to say “was” a team, as 2013-14 turned out to be the last season that RJS HL Fleurus existed. Going back to Etoile Sportive Fleurusienne, which was founded in 1909, it went through three mergers to finally go under in a huge reshuffling of smaller teams in Wallonia.