"El que no salta..."

It is minute 73 of Game 2 for Chile. Tension builds to a boiling point as Chile teases our Alameda restaurant onlookers with close-but-no-cigar tries. The swears get nastier. My barros luco grows colder. The horns become more annoying. I could kiss the ref for throwing a red card at Suiza number 11 and could kill him for calling offsides on Chile's first goal (which wasn't really offsides). It is ON and we are pounding the tables and shouting and chanting chichichilelelevivachile! as Chile bears down on the Swiss, cleats flinging turf in tiny missiles and Isla passes to Valdivia, Valdivia passes to Vidal, I think of Vidal Sassoon and my mullet and I forget if Vidal's nickname is Celia Punk or is it Valdivia's and as the fumes of one thousand chain-smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes fill the room all of Chile explodes in a bloodthirsty howl as Chile finally scores a
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our enterprisers quickly close the gates over their front glass windows and discreetly dole out bills to the twenty or so packed restaurant tables as we pay and join the growing mob outside and all around me is the red and white and blue of painted sweatstained faces and flags as capes flapping in the winter wind and the somber olive green of the caribineros as we stampede chanting and throwing confetti in our hair and spitting it out of our mouths and little Chilean babies crawl on mountains of confetti and we are packed, packed in Plaza Italia, holding onto each other for dear life, screaming our heads off, being shoved and our feet not touching the ground as the density of the crowd keeps us moving without walking, jumping and piggy-backing and laughing and smiling and running, running out of fear of being tear-gassed, or, worse, sprayed with sewage water, back to the safety of Laura's apartment and the comfort of a soothing cup of hot chocolate.