¡¡¡Fútbol!!!

Yesterday, I attended my first official soccer game in Quito. For $8 each, we entered the Estadio Olímpico Ataualpa to watch la Liga Deportiva Universitaria play against Deportivo Quito. The pics I took were about a half hour before the game started so the stands don't appear to be too full. After the game had been in play for a little bit, my eyes drifted upwards from the field and I saw that the stadium was completely full: 35,000 fans. Most of the crowd was dressed in white jerseys for Liga, but there was a good handful dressed in red in support of the home team of that stadium.

























Liga scored a goal early on and the game stayed at 1-0 until the very end. I was quite lucky to be rooting for the winning team! :)



















The section of Quito fans here put on quite a show of their devotion. The red and blue smoke was accompanied by fireworks set off from the base of the stands and shot right over the field (we had a few from our side, too, that were a bit scary in their erratic flight patterns). This enormous banner engulfed the crowd sometime after the fireworks show. My new American friend Virginia and I asked our Ecuadorian compadres to write down one of the chants being shouted toward the Quito fans so now we've got at least ONE war cry to rely on. :)


One interesting thing I noticed was that there was a heavy police presence. As fans left the stadium, they chanted, "PIGS!, PIGS!, PIGS!" and threw their empty (or half-full) plastic bottles onto the field.