so the Argentine fulfilled one of his life-long dreams, and attended the Argentina vs. Brazil game in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina... probably no Lab blog reader will ever experience this event, so I asked him to write up an account from the cheap seats..

We (me, my blond girlfriend and my 65 year old Dad) made the mistake of thinking that “sitting” in El Popular (the area behind the goals reserved for the Inchas) was going to be no big deal. When we got there at 7:00 for a 9:30 game it was already overflowing. We somehow pushed through the people until we lodged ourselves in with the fanatics. It was rough – people cussing us out and pushing us in every direction. There are no seats, just steps meant for one, but they're stacked three people deep and you can’t even square your shoulders to the field – you just mash up in with pick pockets and hooligans. You try to act like you’ve been there before, but no body is buying it.

During warm-ups someone threw an M80 at Julio Cesar that almost blew my eardrum out – and I have to give it to him, he went down for a minute and then just kept on warming up. I would have shit my pants and called it a night. 



Once the game started and everyone was rooting for Argentina the creepy crowd got euphoric and started jumping up and down together singing songs. The crazy thing is you can’t actually jump, you just bob up and down, because if you do actually jump, someone is standing where you used to be by the time you fall to the ground and you end up just kind of crowd surfing.

A few minutes later Argentina made their first attempt at goal and everyone went “OOOOO” and the crowd was like a tsunami – I mean it picks you up and rolls you around. I thought it was awesome because I had seen it on tv, but my girlfriend went into shock… she started hyperventilating and could only look straight ahead. She eventually calmed down – tough girl.

A few minutes later some suicidal Coke vendor tried to make it through the crowd and spilled 90% of his drinks after making it 5 feet – may be the worst job ever. My poor Dad ended up getting into a scrum with the vendor and some other guy. I couldn’t even get to him to help and I was just 2 people away – that’s how tight it was. No worries – he’s doing fine.



Last update and tip for anyone brave enough to mix in El Popular is that at half time everyone sits down. But remember there are no seats, and it’s too crowded to even stand. That means there is a race to sit down and if you don’t move first , there is a domino effect and either you fall from people sitting on your legs and lose your spot, or you get pinned in and can’t even move your legs. Don’t bother asking them to move – they just cuss you out and remind you that you don’t belong.