Defensor in semi-finals

 Una Noche Mas, our eclectic and homey B & B, is near a professional team's home pitch.  Defensor vs. Danube in semi-finals. It was an experience.

I was planning to attend the second period, and took a nap when it began (about 4:30PM). I got up and headed 2 blocks to the stadium at 6pm. The place was crawling with policia. I approached the gate and said, "I wish to buy a ticket! "NO!!" - then a lot of rapid Spanish was to me the unintelligible reply.  Disappointed, I said, "Then, how can I see the game? I want to see?", holding and waving two fingers to my eyes and pointing them toward the stadium. The man said " GO!!!" and motioned to a door that took me to bleachers at mid-field.

 I looked up to the scoreboard 2 to 2. This man below, Maximiliano Gomez, had scored both goals for the purple team, Defensor Sport.

No activity on the field, players on both teams standing around, many with hands on their hips. Drums beating and the Danube's cheering song sung loudly from across the field. The clock said 51 minutes which confused me until later I figured out they were into penalty time second half. Everyone was simply standing around waiting for the Referee or what I could not tell. (I later learned there had been a fight and the game was stopped.)

Soon enough they started to play. Rough play dominated. My team (Defensor) was in violet shirts (that is, the side I sat on everyone had a purple shirt; I clapped when they clapped.) The clock wound on...several attempts were made and foiled to the huge disappointment of each alternating crowd. I did not know how many minutes were added for the penalty time, but standing around added to it.

Finally Defensor made a successful attack, the surrounding crowd went wild! Goooooooooooollllllllllll!!!!!!

The heroic player (above), Castro Gomez No. 30, whose header won the game, was knocked out and lay on the ground. The game stopped.

A golf cart with a small twirling red light drove onto the field near to the net. A stretcher brought the injured player to the sideline right in front of me whereupon, he jumped off the stretcher, raised both fists as the whistle blew ending the game.

The police would not let us leave the stadium for nearly 30 minute after the game was over and the opposition side had left. So bottom line...I saw only 4 minutes of the final penalty period, the game ended at 55 minutes. But I could not have chosen anything better than those 4 minutes. 

The local paper online reports (Google translating):

The match had all the condiments. Those who argue whether Defensor-Danube is a classic, have observed enough that yesterday's meeting at the Estadio Luis Franzini. Practically filled grandstands, a special color and two teams fought to the end in search of a victory. None had a great start closing, but that was not aware today of these teams, perfectly could have thought they were playing a final. (................) Defensor but quickly found the tie. Facundo Castro, great second half, put the ball in the heart of the area and Maximiliano Gómez pushed his head to put the 2-2.

From there, the game was played from area to area. The two had chances but were not fine in the definition. The tie seemed sentenced, but in the eighth minute of extra time of great joy for the locals arrived. With the same formula equalizer, Castro Gomez attended with a header put the final 3-2. The striker gave him to celebrate. While throughout Franzini was started in a single cry, he was lying on the ground. His head hit the rival and was knock-out. When he regained consciousness a few minutes later, he received hugs from his teammates and the cheers of the fans. He had been one of the great responsible for the smiles of fans violets.