Hockey



River Plate in Black and Ciudad in the blue and white hoops



The weather was great yesterday so I decided to go and find some hockey to watch. I had done a bit of research on-line and near where I had been to register for the race I had seen a hockey pitch so found out who was playing. Saw a couple of matches from "River Plate" (the home team on that pitch), including their first team who play in the top league in Buenos Aires. Yesterday they were playing Ciudad de Buenos Aires. The standard in this match was very high, and Ciudad have at least one player who was in the Argentine national team at the Olympics last year.



River plate ended up losing 4-0



That the standard of hockey was high yesterday shouldn't really be a surprise given how popular the sport is. The River Plate Club have at least six teams and there are numerous clubs throughout the city and the suburbs. The national team is named Las Leonas "the Lionesses" and has consistently been ranked as one of the top teams in the world. They also seem to be well supported by the public - the women's team hockey shirts are available to buy around town like national football shirts are available in Europe.



One of the campuses of the huge University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in the background.



The final score was 4-0 to the visitors but it was a good game to watch. There was a very friendly atmosphere at the match with stands full of supporters. Having spoken to a few locals about Hockey, it would seem to be the more "middle-class" past time in Buenos Aires, played widely in the private schools, and that was noticeable amongst the parents and other supporters yesterday afternoon.



Before the hockey I also had a wander around the sports park next door. It was seeminly a semi-private park with a number of football and tennis pitches along with lakes and swimming pools. I'm no great photographer but at least you can see the great weather yesterday (although you probably can't see the temperature - it was about 17 degrees!)



Parque Norte