Footbol or Soccer

  Two of the semi-pro teams in Costa Rica 

Saprissa and Liga

In this country THE sport is footbol. Or as it is called in the US, soccer. The masses here are as crazy about it as the US masses are about football. Although the popularity of football is waning in view of the 'kneeling' debacle. Some say the interest was already on the decline prior to Kaepernick and his lame excuse protest. I agree that he along with any of his peers have a right to protest. BUT ON COMPANY TIME? AND AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY'S FLAG!! Alas, I digress.

 

Footbol (which I'll call soccer going forward) is the most interestingly boring game, IMHO. It's as exciting as watching a dog show or grass grow. But don't say that to a soccer fan. If you do you may start a riot such as the ones that have occurred in the past. Article here. There are those that may say 'what about the mayhem in the states after a game'. It's true that after an important game, ie; clinching a division title or championship the crowds go wild, but the crowds at soccer games get mean and take out their hostilities on each other and the stadium during the game in some cases of soccer mania. 

 

I have attended some games here and fortunately, there has not been a melee during or after the event. They have them but maybe they wanted to keep it clean since there was a gringo in the stands. Or possibly because they can no longer sell alcohol prior to, during or after the game. However, walking around empty beer cans and the occasional spent bottle of some type of liquor littering the streets leading up to the stadium is commonplace. 

 

There are two halves, not four quarters. The first is the Primer Tiempo and the second is the Secundo Tiempo. I refer to them as boring one and bored stiff two. I would be remiss if I did not mention the award-winning theatrics displayed throughout the soccer match. Allow me to give you the most repeated and repeated scenario. 

 

A player is driving down(up?) the field. An opponent charges in an attempt to steal the ball away. There is minimum contact, as in he touched me, ref, he touched me! The player who had the ball that was just taken away falls to the ground grabbing his leg/ankle and rolling in pain. He has a look plastered on his face of someone that just crawled out of a two-car collision. The ref does not blow the whistle to call a foul. Play continues. The player with the aching pain jumps up and runs down the field. The ref did not buy his acting. Within minutes this scene will repeat itself again and again. 

 

If there is a foul that is deemed intentional or avoidable then the offending player is issued a yellow card and the ball is put back into play in the vicinity of the foul. If a player gets two yellow cards and then commits the third foul he is ejected from the game. In soccer when that happens then the team continues the game minus one player. They are not allowed to replace him unlike in football. When replacement is needed for either strategy or a tired player it is handled much like replacements in basketball. There are no timeouts in soccer. So instead they have extra time tacked onto the end of the Tiempo. So instead of a 45-minute tiempo, it runs whatever time the timekeeper tacks onto the period. Normally anywhere from one to five minutes extra.

 

So the moral of this is if you find yourself in a latin country and want to immerse yourself in the national pastime then do your drinking before arriving at the stadium and for God's sake..........take along a good book.                      

To keep it interesting I pull for Saprissa (San Jose) and my wife is a Liga (Alajuela) fanatic.