Clásico: Medellín vs Nacional .... a terrifying experience.

While living in Barcelona I got really into soccer, and even went to a few Barça games, so of course when my friend asked if I wanted to go see two of the most famous teams in Medellín (Independiente Medellín and Atlético Nacional) play each other, which is known as a Clásico match.... I said yes. I went with my three friends Kevin, Leo, and Sebastian, his sister, girlfriend and his dad.

While heading to the stadium, a few things caught my eye: armoured police (looked like SWAT), armoured vehicles, intense security checks, and very loyal fans (dressed head to toe in the colour of their team).


The stadium is divided into four sections, North, South, East and West. The 2 most dangerous places to be are the North and South sections of the stadium, because that is where the hard core fans are, which happens to be right behind the goal keepers. So naturally we sat in a non-dangerous place ... or so we thought....



There was such an incredibly energy in the stadium. Medellín and Nacional fans were chanting and singing at the top of their lungs anthems and songs of their teams, waving banners, flags, scarves and balloons. While the game is going on, you hear a LOT of people yelling, and swearing at the players .... if you ever want to learn swear words in another language, just attend a soccer match.

The majority of the game was pretty civilized. Every time either team scored a goal, the fans went crazy, jumping in their seats, celebrating etc. However at one point... everything changed. In the section we were sitting, which had a mix of Medellín and Nacional fans, was sort of close to this large fence that divided the East and North sections, this separated the mixed fans from all of the Medellín fans. I guess something happened, which caused one of the sides to provoke the other, and they starting yelling, and getting very angry. When we noticed this, we were just staring, and I didnt really understand what was going on. Then the Medellín fans (on the other side of the fence) starting throwing objects into the crowd. This is when things started to get bad. Once objects were starting to fly in the air, the Medellín fans started to climb the fence with the barbed wire, and I thought "there's no way they're going to come over that fence..." ... I was wrong.

Here you can see the fence we were sort of near by. The picture was taken earlier in the game, before most people had filled the stadium:


When some of the fans had reached the top of the fence and were about to jump to the other side, people started to panic, and push each other. People were trying to run to the exits, and all of sudden I found myself in a panicked mob of people. I saw the sister of Sebastian run but as she was running, she quickly took off her Nacional jersey, and her father followed her. I grabbed onto the shirt of Sebastian's dad, so I wouldn't get lost in the crowd of people (who were pushing, screaming, and scrambling to get away from the angry Medellín fans who were over the fence and starting to chase after people and hit them). Sebastian's dad grabbed my hand, and pulled me along as we were escaping the crowd of people and made it to the exit. We ran down the stairs to the level below. I had no idea where the rest of my friends were. My heart was racing, I was shaking, and was very scared. For a moment, it felt like the panic and riot had calmed down... but then a mass of people started to run down the stairs, to get out of the stadium. I saw my friend Leo, and called after him. He grabbed my hand, and we ran out of the stadium. On our way out, we saw a man clutching his hand to his head, to a large wound where he was gusting blood. When we got out of the stadium, I thought we were ok, but Sebastian's sister was panicking and just kept running as far away as she could from the stadium, so we kept running too. When we were far away enough, we caught our breath. I was still shaking, very afraid and felt the adrenaline pumping through my body. Leo kept asking me if I was ok. I shook my head yes, but just felt very panicked, and was glad to be out of that chaotic crowd. We crossed the street, and made it to Sebastian's father's car. At that moment, my cell phone rang, it was Kevin calling me to make sure I was ok, and we had everyone accounted for. A couple minutes later, Kevin, Leo, Sebastian and his girlfriend met up with us, and we got into Sebastian's dad's car, and drove back to El Poblado.

It was terrifying to be in a situation like that. I've heard of South American soccer games becoming violent before, and people even dying from being trampled or excess violence, but I never thought i would experience something like that. I was told after the game that apparently there are always problems when Medellín and Nacional play each other, because they have such an intense rivalry (sort of like Barcelona and Real Madrid, but more violent). The good/bad news aspect of this situation, is that a riot hasn't occurred in a long time in Medellín and between Nacional and Medellín. So unfortunately, I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully, I was with people from Medellín, and Sebastian's father was there, so I felt safer knowing he was there with us. But needless to say, it was probably the scariest moment in my life. To feel that level of panic, and insecurity, in a large crowd of people who are also vying for their safety, was intense.

I thought European soccer was intense, South American soccer is a whole other level of crazy.

Below is a summary of the game that we saw. The game was really exciting, and had some amazing goals. The game itself was really fun to go to... until I experienced what it was like to be in a riot in a soccer stadium. Not so much fun.