Footballers

Still posting, though very late...

Karo's boyfriend, Gary, starting playing for a soccer team in Atuntaqui (about 10 minutes away fromSan Antonio). Gary is a very tall white man from Germany, so he's not hard to find on the field. If you know me, then you know I was pretty excited he joined the team because it meant I got to attend soccer games for...you guessed it, $1.

Basically, the entire team consists of Karo's cousins, who are happy to have a new, very tall goal keeper. For the past two Sundays, we've gone to their games. I'm fairly certain the other spectators think I must be related to Gary (there aren't a lot of gringos at the games), whom they often refer to as "the German."

In my opinion, there aren't many pitches with a better view, so I was surprised to see the small number of folks who come out to support their teams.

However, for many of the spectators, the games are merely an excuse to drink and party in the name of their team (not so different from tailgating in the US). I love that there's always music playing, sometimes so loud the players have to ask the spectators to turn it down!

Don't worry. I made sure to coach from the sidelines. I'm pretty sure the ref looked right at me after I called him out on a series of bad calls. Even though my running commentary was in English, he knew exactly what I meant. Call it fairly, sir. I was really missing Matt's bad call brick!