Experiencing Football in Buenos Aires

Even though Argentina is a Catholic country, the real religion in Argentina is football. Every Sunday millions of people go to the stadium to see their favorite football teams or at least watch the televised game. If you switch on the TV in Argentina on a Sunday it is very likely that you´ll see mainly football.

Experience a soccer game the Argentinian way

To watch a live football game in Buenos Aires is a fantastic experience that you won’t forget. The excitement of a good match and the passion of the players who give it their all during their 90 minutes on the pitch is reason enough, but apart from that, it´s a great way to get an insight into the Argentine culture. The real show at a football game in Buenos Aires is the way that the home crowd sings throughout the entire game from the moment it begins until the end, regardless of the result, the weather conditions, or the players´ performances. The Argentinian fans are very dedicated and will always follow and cheer their favourite team on, no matter what.

Top 3 Football Teams in Buenos Aires

1. BOCA JUNIORS

To watch a game at La Bombonera is to enjoy an unforgettable experience

Boca Juniors is the biggest soccer team in Argentina and is well known around the world. It´s Diego Maradona´s favorite team and Diego himself played for Buenos Aires’ Boca on two different occasions.

Boca Juniors' home - La Bombonera - is located in La Boca itself. The stadium has a capacity of 60,000 and is usually full for Boca games. The most dedicated Boca Juniors´ fans are known as "La Doce" (the twelve), and the Xeneizes (the Genoese) because the team was founded by Italian immigrants (mostly Genoese) who populated the La Boca neighborhood in the early 20th century.

The Boca Juniors stadium is called La Bombonera because of its shape which is similar to a box of chocolates; a special advantage of the stadium´s structure is its great acoustics, which makes the 60,000 fans sound like 120,000! Here’s an interesting Boca anecdote: The Boca Juniors shirt used to be pink, then they had thin black-and-white vertical stripes on them until 1906 when Boca faced another team that wore exactly the same colours. Boca were forced to change the appearance of their shirt and so they decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first ship that entered the Boca port, which was a ship from Sweden. Hence the blue and yellow colours the players sport today.

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2. RIVER PLATE

River Plate is Boca Juniors principal rival

Although Boca is currently the most famous team in Argentinian football, the team with the longest history in Argentina is River Plate, who have won the championship 10 times more than Boca. River Plate is known as the team of the wealthy people in the city and the fans are nicknamed Millonarios (millionaires) in Buenos Aires. The jerseys of River Plate are white with a red diagonal on the front. River recently dropped to the second league for the first time in their history, but they came back to the Primera Division again in 2013. This, of course, was the perfect fuel for the age-old Boca vs. River rivalry.

The home stadium of River Plate, known as El Monumental, is located in the north of the city in the neighbourhood of Nuñez. El Monumental is the biggest stadium in Argentina and also the most modern in Buenos Aires with a capacity of 77,000. The stadium was built for the Fifa World Cup in 1978 - which Argentina went on to win.

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3. VELEZ SARSFIELD

Visit Velez Stadium in Liniers neighbourhood

The 3rd team in importance in Buenos Aires is Velez Zarsfield, who has gained prominence in the last few years. Their home stadium, Estadio José Amalfitani, lies on the western border of Buenos Aires in the neighborhood of Liniers and has a capacity of 50 thousand people. Vélez was founded in 1909 with a group of football aficionates that used to gather to play near the Vélez Sarsfield railway station (nowadays called Floresta station). Since then, Vélez has won the Argentine Primera División nine times, and has also won five international cups (including both the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup).

Whatever team you decide to support, a football match is one of the top attractions in Buenos Aires for tourists who want to feel and understand the real passion of Argentina. Every Argentinean team and its passionate fans will give you a cultural experience you´ll never forget and lots of good memories to take home from your vacation in Buenos Aires.

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