El Partido Entre Costa Rica y Mexico

On September 5, I got to go to the Costa Rica vs. Mexico soccer game!!! I went with my host family! We were on our way to the game as my host papi was holding the Costa Rican flag out the window to show off the pride as it blew in the wind while we drove through neighborhoods. We got to the stadium at 3:00pm, but the game didn’t start until 8:00pm. The stadium itself didn’t even open until 4:00pm, so we stood in massive crowds and lines of people yelling, cheering, chanting, and screaming at any Mexican fans who walked by. There was a mariachi band with a bunch of Mexican fans around them singing while ALL the Costa Rica fans were heckling and yelling at them! What energy and enthusiasm; I loved it!! So we finally got in and sat about 6 rows behind the goal!!! There was a legit band playing music for a good couple hours, so we sang and danced along. There were a bunch of other random entertaining things that occurred out on the field, such as people on stilts with animal heads on because the FIFA World Cup is in Africa! haha When the teams came out to warm up, Mexico was warming up on our half of the field and in the goal right in front of us. This resulted in a TON of yelling, taunting, and swearing at them by the fans around us. However, once it came time to announce players everyone is cheering and swinging flags around in their hands. There were a number of times where the whole section would be jumping or rocking back and forth as we all sang or chanted the various “Tico” cheers! Oh, and my host sister and I were holding up and waving around our HUGE Costa Rica flag we brought with us. During the game it was so fun (until Mexico started scoring at least)! Every time CR would get close to the goal, everyone in the stadium would stand up and then when they screwed up or got denied, everyone would sit down and groan in sync! There was a lot of standing up, sighing, and sitting down. When Mexico scored, the green section of the stands would go CRAZY and every other person in the stands was dead silent with an angry look on their faces. Right when Mexico scored their 3rd goal, about 2/3 of the stands stood up and walked out, even though there was about 25 minutes left in the game. We stayed for a little while longer and left about 10 minutes before the end. There was a frustration conversation between my host papi and host hermana the whole way home. haha Obviously last Wednesday’s loss to El Salvador also didn’t make Costa Rica too happy. My host family just keeps telling me that I have hope because the US is still on top! Oh the passion and love of the game for futbol in Costa Rica! Gotta love it!