The Difference Between Soccer and Futball.

It was Sunday early in the morning

I walked to old town with the Roman paved streets and along the shores of crashing blue waves. Along the shore adjacent to the main street were hundreds of people in colors of blue and yellow heading in one direction. Having nothing else to do I followed them with curiosity. The crowd went onto the main street that was decorated with palm trees and traffic lights. There I saw a dome like structure; it was a stadium. The nearer I got to the stadium the louder the chants. I went up to a booth and managed to coherently say billetes. It was expensive, but I didn’t care.

I took my seat on the second row that was right near the green field. People up and down and side to side were spitting out the shells of sunflower seeds, sipping Cruz Campo, and puffing porros. There were no peanut shells, Budweisers, or cigarettes.

There was not a minute of silence throughout the entire game. Chants and clever verses were constantly sung, and sometimes entire sections would scream obscenities to the visiting team if they scored a goal. It was comical to watch a little child scream “hijo de puta” while pointing his finger at the player who just scored a point for the opposing team with his father and grandfather cheering him on.

The differences were fascinating.