River Plate

It was game day for all of us here in Buenos Aires as we hopped on the bus and headed to River Plate. We were quickly informed by Sophia that River Plate was the only team that mattered in Argentina as she is a huge fan. Once we pulled up to the stadium the first thing we saw was a gigantic statue of a man playing soccer which took everyone’s breath away.



Once we had got inside we were greeted by Patrice who was our tour guide. He was very passionate about his team as he lead us into the stadium it self. Once we got into the stadium he had us sit in one of the 70,000 seats that Estadio Monumental can hold. It’s known for being the largest stadium in Argentina and was built in 1936 and finished building in 1938. This however wasn’t the original stadium as River Plate was formed 35 years prior in 1901 by the merging of 2 existing clubs, La Rosales and Santa Rosa. The original stadium could hold up to 12,000 where they eventually upgraded to the second which would hold 45,000. One interesting thing about the stadium was that the upper level is reserved for the away fans but this is different from American stadiums because this section was surrounded by barbed wire due to past violent actions from spectators.



After the field tour we got to see what a locker room looked like and it was different than what we had thought. Compared to the NFL and College football locker rooms it was quite small consisting of around 20 lockers and a massage table in the middle. Patrice had also informed us that that locker room was used to prep singers like Michael Jackson and Madonna before they went on to perform in the stadium.

The stadium tour concluded and Patrice lead us into the museum part of the tour. He started us off in what seemed to be a life sized time line. The floor was built with a long red lit up tube which had every decade starting from 1920 on either of the sides of the tunnel. Within the decade rooms the walls showed the final table standings along with the teams starting 11 each year with videos to go along with them. After walking through the history of the club we immediately were in the trophy room which showed any soccer award the club had won throughout its history.



However there was one trophy that had a whole room to itself. This was the Libertadores Trophy (shown above) which represents the top club in South America. River Plate had been able to capture this 4 different years however winning it in 2018 was something that felt a little more sweeter than the previous 3. The game was won in Madrid versus an opponent they were all too familiar with, for the first time in history River Plate had faced off against their rival Boca Juniors who is the other main team in Buenos Aires. After tying their first match 2-2 it all came down to the second leg where River Plate was able to edge out Boca by a score of 3-1. As we exited the trophy room we entered into the Hall of Fame which was displayed with a long line of podiums, each one containing the resumé of a specific player as well as a shiny golden boot above them. There were around 15-20 players on this prestigious list and included the likes of Argentinian legend Hernan Crespo. The last item we saw was a large wall dedicated to their current coach, Marcelo Daniel Gallardo who has brought 2 Libertadores Trophy’s back to River Plate one being in 2015 and the other coming in 2018. Some of our students were lucky enough to see him a few days prior at breakfast in Punta del Este the only issue is that they didn’t know who he was. He had been sitting eating breakfast when some students saw a lot of people taking pictures with him so instinctively they took a photo of him too. It wasn’t until they saw the pictures of him on the walls that they noticed who he was. Overall the trip to River Plate was a huge success and all the students felt engaged as well as entertained throughout the whole tour. This is something we will never forget as a class and will always be remembered for being a once and a life time experience.