FUTBOL!!!!!

Club Deportes La Serena!!
Here in Chile i've become a pretty big futbol fan. It's very nice knowing a bit about the sport since every male in Chile is a huge fan. Even though most people are bigger fans of the European and Argentian leagues, there are still tons of people who go absolutely nuts for Chilean futbol clubs.

Coming from a small city, La Serena is usually very under-manned compared to the teams from Santiago. However, this past season (Clausura 2005--there are two seasons per year), they made the playoffs and then knocked off the winningest team in Chilean futbol history, Colo Colo (thus winning me a bet!). This victory won them a date with Catolica, who went undefeated in the regular season & also made it to the finals of the Copa Sudamericana...a feat rarely accomplished by Chilean futbol clubs.


La Serena fans await the arrival of their beloved team. People arrive hours before the game and rip up newspapers into tiny pieces to make confetti to throw in the air when the team finally steps on the field.

I attended the semi-final game held here in La Serena. L.S. played extremely well, even though it was obvious that La Cato was better...and worked their way to a 3-3 tie. They even had a 2-1 halftime lead, but Catolica was way better in the second half and Serena was pretty lucky to leave with a tie. In the partido de vuelta in Santiago, Catolica won 1-0, making it to the finals against La U. de Chile (also from Santiago), and Catolica eventually won the championship in an amazing final game that ended in penalty kicks.


A frenzy ensued after La Serena scored their second goal...a sweet bicycle kick (it's called a chileno here...a bicicleta is some other crazy move).


La Serena fought valiently vs. La Catolica but came up short. The next season starts in February.


Don't ask me how fans sneak in road flares! They also throw rolls of paper and pieces of flaming trash onto the field. The first game I went to, an opposing player got pelted with all sorts of stuff while attempting a corner kick, so they had to bring out shielded policemen to protect him!

Somos los campeones!

A while back the annual observatory olympics were held. My team (the AURA team: CTIO & Gemini) won the championship, winning more than half of the events (the other 2 observatories are Las Campanas & ESO. I played both basketball and futbol. We absolutely dominated in basketball, mainly because we had me, a guy named Jim who is 6-11 (!). I think the final scores were something like 45-15 and 50-12...or something ridiculous like that. In futbol we tied twice (Que fome!), but should have won both. I was pretty much the only gringo playing futbol & the only one without cleats...but it was a good time.


Your 2005 AURA championship basketball team.


This is a pretty picture. The cross in the background is in Coquimbo...it's kind of an eyesore.


Also a pretty picture. The weather here has been like that for the past few weeks.


Not as pretty of a picture...