My first World Cup game

The first World Cup game I went to, which was actually a qualifier, but still my first one, was in Lima, Peru, of all places, and I didn't even know it was happening.

Here's my ticket, proud I am of it.



As the story goes, I was backpacking in Peru, summer of 2000, way before Korea/Japan 2002, Euro 2000 was over, the French victorious again, and the European qualifiers weren't going to start until September, I think. So here I was in Lima, I was shacking up in some hostel, and walked over to the local supermarket to get some goods.

The supermarket had this long line of Peruvians waiting to get in, it ran around the block almost, and at the front entrance, there was this metal fence, with a gap that the line ran through. A couple of people did pass through this gap, but they looked as if they were pushing in front. I had no idea what was going on, but the last thing I wanted to do was to piss off a lot of chain-smoking Peruvian men by acting like a superior white guy, so I went to the back of the line and waited.

I don't know how long I waited for, time was my friend, and I just watched people around me chat animatedly, as the line slowly moved along, and I was thinking, things must be bad around here if they have to line up to get their milk, but I didn't think that was the case. I was convinced that I could just be able to walk through the store, but I'm sorry to say I was just too chicken to do it.

Eventually, I found myself near the front of the line, and I realized, that really, I could just walk in the store, other people were doing it, and I was just about to do so, thinking to myself, "what on earth was this line for?" when I happened to glance at the store windows right in front of me, screaming "Arriba, Peru!", and it hit me!

I was in line to buy tickets for a game! I was like, "Yes! One please! Huh? I don't care what you're saying, here's your fifty, just give me that piece of paper!"

The game itself was a very intimidating atmosphere, everyone was wearing the national strip (white with a red diagonal, note to self: get it), and I was a little nervous perched on the end of a wooden bench hearing everyone chanting "Peerrr-Hu! Peerrr-Hu!" It actually got fun until I started thinking, "they're not going to be happy with a draw here", and I was saying to myself, "I'm going to be out of here at the 80 minute mark", but the Peruvians tied won it, and I got lost in the bouncing crowd and had to stop to ask for directions of a family cleaning out their tiny restaurant, which took me about 30 minutes just to enunciate my objective correctly.

But there you have it, I pride that ticket.