Sevilla FC v. Real Betis Soccer Madness!!!!

Last Saturday Sevilla went wild with soccer madness as two cross-town rivals went head to head. Sevilla Futbol Club and Real Betis is one of the most bitter rivalries in all of Spain. The teams are separated by no more than 5 miles and have decades of built up tension. On the day of the game the city turned red and green, the respective colors of Sevilla and Betis. Sevilla Futbol Club played the game at home, where they had not lost to Betis in over 13 years and all over Sevilla you could hear the drunken chants coming from local pubs and bars. On the day of the game, my good Sevillian friend Xavi took me on a trip around the city to experience the madness. That day I decided to jokingly send my coach a text message saying, "VAMOS SEVILLA", knowing very well he was a die hard Betis fan. I didn't know how much this game meant to the Sevillians until he responded in Spanish, "I was going to invite you over for dinner but now you lost that privaledge as well as your ticket back to the United States!!!". Of course he was just kidding....I hope:). Xavi then took me to a local bar where we saw the Superbowl the previous weekend. As i entered all I could hear and see was a mass of drunk men wearing red and in unison chanting the team songs of Sevilla. I was surprised by all the songs that the men knew. I was in the bar for at least 45 minutes and the men never stopped chanting and they never repeated a song. Keep, in mind that many of these men did not even know each other. At the corner of the bar, there were a few faithful Betis fans holding there ground against Sevillas mob.

Our next stop was Sevilla's home, Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium. I didn't get to go inside of the stadium, but from walking around the outside I could tell why they didn't sell alcohol inside. I thought a UCLA-USC footbal game was bad, but this was just insane. There were riot police all around the stadium making sure no fights broke out, which Xavi told me happened on the regular. I really felt bad for the Betis fans because they were constantly getting heckled by the mob of Sevilla Futbol Club fanatics. However, somehow Betis pulled off the upset victory and beat Sevilla in their own stadium for the first time in over a decade. Soon after the game you could see the Betis fans trickle out of the bars and their houses to celebrate their victory on the streets. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty happy when Betis won. Not only because i love it when an underdog wins, but I was pretty sure I won my ticket back home!