Football, Nacional fell 2-1

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Tonight Nacional fell to its rival, the Brazilian’s “Internacional de Porto Alegre”, in its first leg quarterfinals match, in the Libertadores de America cup. It’s a shame, because the game was played here, in Nacional's stadium (el parque central), and winning in Porto Alegre its going to be real hard. It’s been long time since any Uruguayan club made it to the finals, near twenty years now.

El Club Nacional de Futbol is one of the two biggest, and more ancient football teams in Uruguay, it has more than a hundred years old, founded in may 1899, which is a lot to say when the sport itself is around that time old. Nicknamed el bolso, Nacional is actually considered among the firsts true South American football teams, since prior to the foundation of Nacional all football teams would only allow European players. Also Nacional’s stadium hosted the first match in the first world cup ever.

I could go on babbling about el bolso’s glorious history but you could get that info somewhere else.I’d rather tell you a little story, first hand, just to put you in context about what this team means to a lot of Uruguayans. My father is a Nacional supporter, always been, his brother, my uncle, is, and always been, a big fan of Peñarol, the other ancient Uruguayan football team, Nacional’s nemesis. When I was born, some years from now, my uncle was decided to make a Peñarol’s fan out of me, at all costs, so he went and bought this little peñarol’s official team baby outfit, hoping that it would become the first football garment I wear charming the little creature to be a follower of the dark side forever I guess, or at least to take pictures of me in it in order to black mail me in the future, or my father or whatever. Anyway, when my grandma found out about this, the legend goes she went berserk. She was a big Nacional’s supporter and couldn’t believe my uncle’s nerve. They say she gave him the lecture of his life, about how if he wanted a baby to wear that kind of (evil?)outfit he would have to have it himself. My uncle still keeps the Peñarol’s baby outfit to this present day, I've seen it. I am a Nacional supporter, always been :)


(images taken from Nacional's official site and here)
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