Football in El Salvador: Alianza vs AFI

Once again we struck very lucky with the football fixtures. Football is the main sport in the small country of El Salvador (appearances in the 1970 and 1982 world cup finals cemented its popularity despite a record 10-1 defeat to Hungary in 1982). There are two seasons played each year and the official league site informed us that the first one was over and the second yet to start, so we had about given up on the option when we read in a newspaper that there was actually one final game remaining and it was to be played that very night. And it was a biggy too: the second leg of a play-off match between the 2^nd bottom of the top league and 2^nd place in the league below. Alianza, the only team from the capital, San Salvador, had had a terrible year and were on the verge of going down for the first time in 50 years. The first leg had ended 1-1 at their opponents ground.We got to the ground as night was falling and had no trouble buying a pair of tickets from a tout for $5 which seamed to be the done thing, to avoid long queues for what were only $2 tickets each anyway. It was unclear where to enter the ground but we were soon encouraged to push in to a queue and join some friendly locals who were happy to find out we are English, not American. Everyone was dressed in white (except for me) and someone walked along the queue, past smoking barbeques, painting faces for a few cents. We chatted about football matters local and abroad; their favourite European clubs, unfortunately, were the charmless, pig-rich duo, Real Madrid and Chelsea. All the fans we encountered turned out to be great fun and all were happier when they found out our nationality. As a crowd, the white-shirts at the front jumped and danced the whole time and further back, in our section, they followed the game closely from seats while being offered cola, beer, sandwiches (3 for a dollar), hamburgers, sweets, fags, nuts and ice-lollies. It was a great atmosphere, especially about 20 minutes in, when everyone was excited by the appearance in the stands of a local celebrity who danced and wiggled his sizeable belly in answer to shouts from his public. We were told he was a clown and are still not sure if it was an ex-player who ‘clowned around’ a lot or a famous professional clown, the latter a more likely possibility here than in England. At half time, with the teams at one-all, the mood was still jovial as we visited the relatively clean toilets (though some men still chose to wee on the wall outside and inside the ladies- men relieving their bladders at will, almost anywhere is a pan-Central American occurrence) and exchanged banter with people in a queue for hot dogs being passed though a tiny hole in the outside wall.The second half started with tension, but ultimately brought great cheers of joy and relief from the Alianza supporters as first one goal, a penalty, and then another went in. A less commendable period of gloating followed as a section of home fans called the away fans ‘indios’, presumably racist taunts aimed at the visitors from a more indigenous are of the country. Feeling occasionally embarrassed of your own fans is something a York fan gets used to, so this didn’t take the edge off a great night of Latin- American football following. In fact, thanks to the welcoming, amiable supporters, it was one of our most enjoyable matches so far.