Was anybody else on BS at the Monterrey/Olimpia game last night? I was thinking Bandido would go, maybe Grenias? I've been to a lot of Mexican and Central American games at Robertson over the years but I don't think I've ever been to one where I was the only white guy in the whole stadium, other than security and workers. I hardly even heard any English spoken during the night. It was a fun game and good atmosphere, though the lack of goals, threat of rain and steamy (but not really hot) weather sort of dampened the crowd a bit. La Adicción was there in full voice, banner and smoke. Also there were thousands of Olimpia fans who out-yelled the Monterrey fans not in La Adicción. I wanted to go partly because the Dynamo will be playing Olimpia twice coming up and wanted to check them out, though I guess they are still in preseason, no? They looked good, for most of the game I was thinking the Dynamo will be in serious trouble. They have speed and are very agressive and quick on the ball. They look like a bunch of Bonieks, though not that good I don't think. Boniek was clearly their best player, though there were a few others I wouldn't mind picking up. Defensively they looked very solid and the offense had several really good chances on goal. Don't ask me for specifics, though, I'm not that kind of observer . (I do know there were some amazing women there, in particular the Tecate girls. They were worth the $25 themselves.) But I was surprised how good Olimpia was, though as the game went on I started to think they were probably beatable. It should be a good game and a good test for the Dynamo, who hopefully will have found out how to score by then. By the way, Robertson is still a dump. Actually, it's gotten so much worse over the past year. I guess they're getting ready to tear it down. It's embarrassing those teams were there. I hope somebody showed them BBVA. Olimpia was probably thinking "what the hell has Boniek gotten himself into?" The bathrooms were extremely hot and really gross, how did we put up with that place for so long? Even the palms looked sad. I guess they're about to be dug out too. Maybe they will plant them at BBVA? That would be sweet. One more thing, everybody was chanting "Monterrey.... clap! clap! clap!" That would be so easy to do the same with Dynamo. It would be a nice change from the constant "Let's go Dynamo!"
Oh, and to answer Westside, I never got beer thrown on me, never saw anything, other than confetti or streamers get thrown, and didn't see anyone fight or even argue, though in the stands it was about 50/50 Monterrey and Olimpia fans. Monterrey kept diving, once an obvious one in the box, the others mostly toward the end of the game to try to get possession. The ref hardly ever bought it though. Olimpia played really clean though.
0-0. Monterrey had lots of really good chances in the end, Olimpia had a couple too. The last 10 minutes or so were pretty exciting, pretty crazy. I was hoping Monterrey would score at the end, they were shooting at the goal right in front of La Adicción, they would have gone crazy.
There was actually another white guy present, BigSoccer's own dmcduff. We sat midfield for a while then decided to go to the North End. However, he's been standing with EB for a couple of years now so I'm pretty sure his "whiteness" has faded. We were at the North End just singing and having a good time. There were some incidents, though, that I know of, and will post those in another post. Right now, let's just leave this post for all of the happy feelings that memories brought us. I didn't take any decent pictures once I entered the North End, because I was too busy taking part in the old tradition of being part of a barra. There were some other EB members present, though, that I bumped into walking around the stadium, and I saw some very familiar faces in the security staff.
Now for the incidents: 1. In the restroom, a few Monterrey fans threw urine and insulted a Catracho. I didn't see this happen, but I did see the gentleman get escorted out alongside a couple others. 2. In the North End, where both Rayados' barras stood, some Catrachos decided to talk mess in front of them, so a couple of people came down and beat him up. It got to the point that he couldn't see out of his eyes. 3. There were a couple of backpacks full of fireworks, that sadly, got confiscated right before the second half. I would have enjoyed seeing them go off. There were a couple of flares going off throughout the first half, though.
How do you know I wasn't there? BTW, I know you were trying to make a real wiseguy comment, but you just proved my point about the beer throwing - it's not a "tradition" like most El Tri & Mexican team supporters claim when they throw it on Americans, it's an excuse for throwing stuff at US fans. Apparently Brahma must have been at a different stadium than you. I mean, I just can't imagine any kind of incident like this happening!!!!!!
It actually is kinda like a tradition, Westie. We were on opposite sides of the stadium, from his picture it looks like he was where most of the Olimpia fans stood, and I was where most of the Rayados fans stood. He also probably didn't venture into the North End. So in the end, it is like we were in two completely different stadiums. I do agree with Brahma in that it was safe until a person provoked something, and The Rob has gone to hell. It has really become a dump.
Na, we were in 205, nothing at all happened on the west side that I saw. Well, ok, there was a lot of smoking going on, but there were a lot of drunks, no cops, lots of passion, but no incidents. Very nice. Ponce, I expected there would be EB members present but I never saw/recognized any. I was wearing my Dynamo jersey (payback for all the Monterrey ones I see at Dynamo games) and saw several other groups of Dynamo fans. It was a fun night.
By the way, Ponce, what did you think about Olimpia? I was pretty impressed. You think Dynamo can beat them? I think we will need to bring our best game, but if we do we ld be ok.
How dare UH remove the ORANGE NETS off the goals? Jerks. Oh well, the Robertson walls still have the Houston Dynamo logos printed on them and that is something they can't remove.
Brahma did you got with a Hispanic friend? The reason I ask is because, even though I speak Spanish rather well, from my experience white people get abuse at these games. Last time I went to a Mexican exhibition with my norteno friend one of the dads in the group was like "Por que el juero esta contigo?" to my friend. It really made me feel unwelcome. Also I got a lot of stares and I could tell peoples' minds were blown that I was at the game (never mind that I lived in Spain for 4 months and I speak better Spanish than some of these tontos). Unos mexicanos no saben que otros hablan espanol.
My friend has gone to games by himself, and he went some places without me and you can feel his whiteness before even seeing him approach you. You have nothing to fear as long as you don't start mess. If you feel unsafe go to a SG and start jumping up and down. You can also try singing some of the songs, people will assume you know what you're doing and not say anything.
I was impressed by them, but I've seen them play better. They're a good team, probably second best team in Central America next to Saprissa. Their defense is spot-on, but their counter-attacking needs some work. If they better their counters they can go one-on-one with anybody just as they went at it with Rayados. This is AFTER losing who's arguably their best player, Boniek, but they still have "Wicho" (sp?).
Olimpia will be taking on AC Milan in August to cap off an impressive 100 year celebration in which they also took on America. Its a hard sell to say Saprissa is better then Olimpia at the moment.
You're telling me that we should judge teams by the teams they play and not by their results? In that case I know of a Chinese team that played Barcelona. They didn't win and it was just a friendly, but they played them. Does that mean that they are now one of the best teams in the world? I also know Atlante faced Barcelona a couple years back, they may have lost, but they played them. I guess Atlante is up there, as well. I can use the past ten years as proof as to why Saprissa is better than Olimpia.
No need to be ridiculous I am basing it on results. Olimpia won both championships in Honduras while Saprissa had two very disappointing seasons in which they didn't finish at the top of the table or make it to either final and its not as if Herdiano or La liga were themselves very impressive.
Yea, I did, but I had bought the tickets a few days earlier thinking I was going with another gringo friend who ended up not being able to go. The other guy was a last minute replacement. But all the people around me were cool, especially when I would counter their "Mon-te-rrey" chant with my own "Dy-na-mo!" They thought that was funny. They kept turning around looking at me when they heard me talking Spanish to my friend, but just in a curious way. The guy in front was a catracho and very drunk. Come to find out I had a lot of trouble understanding drunk Honduran Spanish, though he was mixing it with very bad drunk English. I think. We might have been talking about Boniek. And how nice the beaches are in Honduras. Not really sure. But no, I never felt uncomfortable or out of place. Well, ok, a little uncomfortable. It was the Rob, after all.....
Since the only comparison we can realistically make between the leagues and teams involves continental play. I'm saying this because we can argue all night which league is the best, I have taken the freedom of listing some continental results. CONCACAF Champions Cup/League: 2004: Saprissa- Finalist/ Olimpia DNQ 2005: Saprissa- Champion/ Olimpia Quarter-Finals 2006: Saprissa- Semis/ Olimpia Quarter-Finals 2007: Saprissa- DNQ/ Olimpia Quarter-Finals 2008: Saprissa- Finals/ Olimpia DNQ 2009: Saprissa- Group Stage/ Olimpia Group Stage 2010: Saprissa- Group Stage/ Olimpia DNQ 2011: Saprissa- Semis/ Olimpia Quarter Finals (eliminated by Saprissa) 2012: Neither Qualified
I am not arguing Costa Rica's league is worse or that Saprissa's 04 squad couldn't beat Olimpias 04 squad. I am saying THIS Saprissa squad that couldn't even get passed Herdiano and didn't do so well in the league isn't better then THE CURRENT Olimpia squad that dominated their league. Olimpia did qualify for 2012 some of your stats are off
They were eliminated BEFORE the group stage, they're called preliminary rounds for a reason.* I don't count them unless they went to the group stage or better. You're right but I guess what threw me off was the fact that you bunched the AC Milan friendly and Saprissa being worse than Olimpia. It almost seemed as if you were using a friendly in order to rank Olimpia better than Saprissa. Mind you, a friendly that hasn't even been played yet. *I'm using the year the tournament ends as the year of the tournament i.e. 2009-10 tournament would be 2010 tournament and not the other way around.
Fair enough though Olimpia didn't make it out of the preliminaries in 2012 because they got drawn with Santos that would eventually make the final and they played Santos well. Olimpia was easily the best Honduran squad in last years CCL
Brahma, I was there and even though there were a good amount of Catrachos they didn't outnumber the Rayado fans. by the looks of your picture you were on the westside where what I guess is their SG had set up.....Los Gabines? What you call "diving" I call a constant foul by the Olympia players and the bingbat Ref. decided to play on only until it affected the "Leones" then he would remember what the whistle was for. All and all an even match though Ayovi and the rest seemed to have their timing off but nice to see them play in person.
I knew you had to be there! On our side it was pretty much 50/50, but it didnt seem like there were any organized Olimpia SGs there. And yea, Monterrey did seem like they were just a little off on their passes.
Senor Cool was there with my in-laws. Highlight of the night...my wife's uncle turns to me and asks, "What part of Mexico are you from?" My response: "Pasadena." I sure did hear a few of Pinche Gringo comments throughout the night!