Football - Soccer

Chile

Football is the most popular sport in Chile.

The first thing that got my attention having just arrived at the airport in Chile for the first time was when I was heading towards the center of the city on the airport bus. I saw dozens of football fields lined up one after an another along the side of the road on the way in. Many were dusty patches of dirt, the odd one had patches of grass here and there but the goalposts gave away the fact that football is a popular activity in Chile.

There are three main 'top' teams that have a deep rivalry against each other: Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile and Colo Colo. The games between these teams are always considered high-risk and need a lot of police reinforcement. It has got to the point that the different fans have to enter the stadiums through opposite ends to avoid conflict.

The teams that are currently in First Division (2009) are:

Audax Italiano, Cobreloa, Cobresal, Colo Colo, Curicó Unido, Everton, Huachipato, La Serena, Municipal Iquique, Ñublense, O'Higgins, Palestino, Rangers, Santiago Morning, Union Española, Universidad Católica, Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Concepción.

There are 18 teams in total in this top division.

There have been a number of Chilean football players doing well abroad both in Latin America and Europe. Some of the recent players doing well have been Marcelo Salas (River Plate and Lazio) and Ivan Zamorano (Real Madrid and Inter de Milan). Both players were key factors in Chile making it to the World Cup in France in 1998 and their subsequent qualification through to the second round where they were only beaten by Brazil.

In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Chile, under the guidance of DT Marcelo Bielsa, also did very well but again lost to Brazil in the second round. In the qualifying group they only lost 2-1 to Spain who would then go on to be the World Champions that year.

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