Day 39

Friday 10^th December 2010

Today we went to Boca Juniors stadium called Estadio Alberto J. Armando or known locally as “La Bombonera”.

There are many stories why its called La Bombonera, one is that they were the first crowd to use drums called bom boms. Another is that it looks a chocolate box that was around at the time it was built but our favourite is the story that our guide told us ( a River Plate fan and fierce local rival of Boca). He told us that back in the early 1900’s when horse and carts were still commonly used, the bin men used a bin that looks similar to the stadium to collect all of the manure. Basically their local rivals call it “the horseshit box”. Football rivalry remains the same the world over.

All of the teams in Argentina are social clubs, not football clubs. This means that on site they have, basketball courts, they teach Judo, Taekwondo, you can go and play table tennis plus loads more. You pay your subs which are $95 pesos per month (about £15) and that allows you access to all the things at the stadium including the home games!! They closed membership in 2002 and it is now impossible to join unless you know someone who works there.

The original jersey colour was pink, but this was quickly abandoned for thin black-and-white vertical stripes. Legend has it that in 1906, Boca played another team that used this strip to decide who would get to keep it. Boca lost, and decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first boat to sail into the port at La Boca. This proved to be the 4146 ton freighter "Drottning Sophia", a Swedish vessel sailing from Copenhagen. 

As a result, the yellow and blue of the Swedish flag were adopted as the new team colours. The first version had a yellow diagonal band, which was later changed to a horizontal stripe. What they didn’t know was that the colours had faded in the sun, so the first kit was really pale blue and yellow, as you can see nowadays the colours represent the Swedish flag more accurately.




One Diego Maradona began his playing career at Boca way back in 1981, he’s obviously a legend here and theres Maradona stuff everywhere.

I was surprised to find that nobody here thinks he’s a short arsed, drug taking cheater, no matter how many disgruntled Argentinean folk I asked. Although we all seem to agree that he is a shit coach. Here's me showing the owner of the local shop outside the stadium exactly why he is a disgrace to his nation.



Despite this they all still love him, so much so that back in 2006 when the club celebrated its centenary they told Maradona that the box he was currently paying for was now his, free of charge, for life. Cheating pays!
 

Maradona's box is the one with the yellow bench and occupies the centre of the stadium

There is also a society which dedicates all of its activities to supporting the team known as la número 12 or la doce (player number doce or 12, meaning "the 12th player").

The naming of “La 12″ (the twelfth player), by which Boca Juniors' fans became known, dates back to the year 1925, during the European tour they made that year. At that time, the team was accompanied by a Boca fan called Victoriano Caffarena, who belonged to a wealthy family and funded part of the tour. During that tour he helped the team in everything establishing a strong relationship with the players, so they named him “Player No. 12″. When they returned back to Argentina, Caffarena was as well known as the players themselves. Nowadays, this nickname is used primarily to name their group of supporters, known as “La 12″

La 12 is also used as the name for Boca's mob (fans that fight for the team). They are very well organised and have even developed their own clothing range. Below is a top they call "The Ninja", its used when fighting rival mobs so that when the police come you can zip it up and nobody knows who you are.

When Boca score a goal all the fans famously run to the fences and climb them, cheering and singing so I thought i'd have a go!

The dressing rooms are very basic, the idea is that you are not a star in the dressing room, you are only a star on the pitch.

They do have a physio table though and seeing as Suz had pulled her "hammy" in the warm up I gave it a rub.

and then she interviewed me about my qualifications in physiotherapy only to discover I was a fraud (the laughter stopped moments after this photo).

After being outed as a fraud by my wife, she chose to no longer receive treatment from me and jumped on the medical buggy to seek further assistance.

I went to the Museum to seek out some advice, there were none of the well known fraudsters of Boca to speak to ( Tevez, Veron, Maradona) but I did stumble upon Riquleme, who told me to disguise myself as a pimp and I would get away with it, luckily they sold some well pimpin' stuff in the club shop.

(has anyone noticed that this clap trap story ties in well with the pictures?)

I found a pimpin hat which did the trick nicely, I was almost unrecognisable and now free to contiune the tour without any hassle or fraudster chants!



Enough of that rubbish, I had to get the photos in some how...... Anyway we found that the worlds greatest football team had played against Boca i'm not sure about the score but I imagine Utd won.

I am aware that this has been a bit of a random post, but nothing was more random than a life size statue of Che Guevara in the club shop, what the hell is that about??

After all that it was time for a well deserved Frank Nap, I do look a bit like someone might steal the covers.

Feeling suitably refreshed we headed out into town to a French restaurant that had been recommended in the guide, it was just down the street and was empty when we arrived. All of the tables had reserved signs on them, so where were they all?? It was 20:15. We managed to get a table and was informed that the kitchen doesn’t open until 20:30, we cant figure this city out at all! The food was amazing!!

We had a selection of pate's to start and then I had the Beef Bourguignon and Suz went for the Lamb. The idea was to eat early ish and then hit the town for a monster of a Friday night out in Buenos Aires. The reality was we stuffed ourselves so full of French Food and wine we could barely walk let alone dance, we rolled back up the street to the hostel and called it a night, tomorrow will be the big one instead!

NB: for some unknown reason these have posted in the wrong order so don't miss day 40 below!!!