Real Esteli 2 Walter Ferreti 2

Not since San Salvador at the end of June had I seen a live football match but with a free night in Esteli while a night game was on, it was definitely time to end the drought. Baseball is the biggest sport in Nicaragua with larger tv audiences and is the sport most placed by kids. Football though is gaining popularity fast as more people get access to cable tv and lately the streets of Leon are full of 5-a-side games of an evening. There are plenty of shirts or stickers around for Barcelona, Madrid or the top premiership teams. The national side have never achieved anything but there is a lot of interest in the success of neighbouring Honduras qualifying for the World Cup. The national league is basic but Esteli are one of the better teams and attendances have been boosted recently by the advent of floodlit evening games. The lights were brightly leading the way to the ground as I walked down past the funfair opposite the ground and into an impressive number of fans with a good showing of home shirts. The tickets were 3, 4 or 5 dollars and I went for the main stand luxury where my digital camera would be a little less of a novelty, though as it happened the whole ground was very safe and friendly. The pitch was grassy but clearly hard and uneven and the 3-sided ground was nearly half full with maybe 2000 fans and 60 away fans, all in good mood. Real Esteli, who play in red and white, are sponsored by Bimbo (bread) while Walter Ferreti, who play in red and black are sponsored by the police.Real Esteli fans behind the goal. The three banners from left to right read, 'In heaven or in hell, wherever you are, I will be!!!'; 'My old woman gave me life and The Train gave me my heart - Player number 12 is present'; 'Sometimes drunk, always with The Train'

A bonus was the sort-of-large screen showing live tv coverage of the match but with a good 5 second delay. This led to an amusing set of replays showing the crowd how skilfully an Esteli winger had managed to deliberately kick the player in the head who had just fouled him; the fans cheered loudly and the ref chose not to look. The official commentator used this phone as a microphone throughout the game

The first half went by in a blur of poor refereeing, with the away side looking the more organised and it was they who took the lead with a long free kick headed in by a running forward showing rather better timing and awareness than the Esteli defence. Free quick goes close for Real Esteli. Note the 'big' screen behind showing live action.

The most noise thus far came at half time as some uncomfortable looking lycra-clad girls were paraded around the pitch to promote a mobile phone company, to the whistles, lewd comments and laughs of the crowd, around 80% of whom were male.

The second half started like the first with the home side looking short of ideas and the lead was soon doubled as a run to the by-line and pull back was finished off with a neat low drive. Things were looking bad for Esteli.

I started chatting with a lad next to me who turned out to be a youth team player and mostly interested in which Chelsea players I thought were good. I’m not really sure he got the concept of me supporting a team from the fifth division as there is no real pyramid system in Nicaragua. I was interested to find out that the top player at the club earns $1500 a month and he was bemused to find out players at his favourite English club can earn over $100,000 a week. “Can you see them in the street?” he wanted to know, and “does Frank Lampard help the poor people where he lives?” “Not really” and “probably a bit” were the best I could do. He was happy to hear that the clubs help with community projects and there are good youth academies that are free if you’ve got the talent.

Back to the game and against the run of play Esteli pulled one back with 10 minutes to go, possibly directly from a free kick that went through a crowd of players. That was a signal for the fans to get excited and noisy and for the players to give it a go. Well into several minutes of injury time, or play-acting time as it is in Latin America, a long ball beat the Walter Ferreti centre back and, with the forward through on goal, the keeper chose to go for the legs. The ball nearly rolled in but as it was cleared from the line the ref pointed to the spot and sent off the keeper. After several minutes of stropping the penalty was put away and I cheered in genuine joy for the unlikely comeback of my new Nicaraguan team. There was time for Esteli to go close again before the whistle blew and it was the away team breathing a sigh of relief.

Video of last gasp equalising goal for Real Esteli

Man of the match was surely the Walter Ferreti left back and number 2 who caused most of the damage down the wing and tackled like a tiger too.

The action wasn’t over yet however as no sooner had the game ended than one of the Walter Ferreti players launched an attack on the referee who luckily saw him coming and sprinted away with a look of panic written across his face. Players from both teams then got very giddy and a few punches were thrown. This sparked a brief pitch invasion and the intervention of some helpful police officers to break up the melee. All in all it looked a rather fun pitch invasion and I was almost tempted to join the young lad who I had been talking to and who I now noticed was on the grass.

The video below shows the general confusion after the final whistle, with the referees standing well away from the action and, noticeable, standing near the bottom of the picture in his baggy shorts, is the youth player I was talking to. Unfortunately, I just missed the attack on the referee by the Walter Ferreti player whilst I was busy celebrating the comeback.

It was a fun end to a good match and a fine result for the boys in red and white. Hopefully it won’t be long until I’m back there for another game to support Esteli, ‘El Tren del Norte’.