¡Hala Unión!

After four months in Salamanca, I finally made it to my first UD Salamanca soccer match (or is it soccer game? I don't really know what the proper term is... Maybe I'll stick with partido de fútbol). As big as soccer is in Spain, Salamantinos don't get very excited about their local team. Instead, everyone picks either Real Madrid or Barcelona and cheers for them. That's probably because while Real Madrid and Barcelona are fighting for the top position in La Liga, the highest division in Spain, Salamanca is in the middle of the pack of the Segunda B division, the 3rd lowest of 4 divisions.

Salamanca plays at the Estadio Helmántico just north of the edge of town. It would probably be a 40 minute walk, but Jack (my roommate) & I were able to catch a bus near our house that runs on game days. We weren't sure when the bus left, or if there even was a bus for sure, but my very reliable source (an online UD Salamanca forum) claimed there was one that left an hour and a half before game time. The game was at 6, so we showed up 4:30pm on Sunday afternoon expecting to see a crowd of crazy soccer fans waiting for the bus. Nobody was there at first, but eventually a few more fans showed up. The bus ended up leaving around 5, in typical Spanish-time fashion.

We got to the stadium and bought our tickets for the south fondo (endzone) because the endzones were the cheapest (10€) and a friend from ISA said that the south side was more fun. She was right! Some Salamantinos might not care about the local team, but there was a big section of dedicated fans that stood the entire game, chanting, cheering, and booing. There was no assigned seating in the sections, so we could sit anywhere on the south side. Our seats were great- I could have high-fived Raúl Moreno after making a good save if it weren't for the security guard nearby.

Salamanca was playing Atletico Madrid B (their "A" team is in La Liga), and ended up winning 3-0. Forget about the frog, Jack & I must be good luck!

There were signs of the crisis: The jumbo-tron and smaller
electronic scoreboards appeared to be broken.