Column/Opinion

To show that not everything was a yawner, I present my chronicle of the game between RGV Bravos and the Houston Leones (June 5), according to the way I experienced it last Saturday night at the Brownsville Sports Park.

Minute 3: I arrived at the stadium and the ticket usher was distracted. I didn’t even have to show my media credential to get in, and I’m sure a few people had already slipped in without paying the $7 admission.

Minute 5: "Is Kayan going to sing today?," the fans asked from the stands with a certain irony. "Mmm... That’s why I came." (This heckling was due to the fact that the Bravos owner sang the national anthem at a previous game).

Minute 12: "Why did you shoot it? I passed it to you so you could send it back to me along the sideline," shouted Juan Nava at one of his teammates after sailing the ball over the crossbar of the Houston goal.

Minute 23: The goalkeeper Gamboa did his job effectively stopping a play by Houston’s offense.

Minute 25: With a deficient level of play, the Leones maintained possession of the ball.

Minute 26: "The goalkeeper can’t do it all. Move around!," yelled Juan Gamboa’s father from the stands.

Minute 32: "Doesn’t it look like Juan Nava’s jersey doesn’t fit him?," asked a fan. "That’s Chimpa’s jersey he’s wearing, he (Chimpa) let him borrow it because they don’t have enough uniforms."

Minute 44: "Ref, the porra salutes you...," a popular Mexican heckling phrase, is heard from the stands.

Minute 45: Half time.

Minute 46: Like other big sporting events, a fan dashed across the field as if he were someone from some organization like Green Peace that was protesting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or PETA, the animal protection organization. However, there weren’t any security guards behind him, not even a protest on his part, it was only Ricky Rodriguez’s nephew, maybe 2 or 3 years old, who was chased by a woman who appeared to be his mother.

Minute 60: Gamboa stopped a shot that had serious intentions of going in, which provoked a bit of euphoria from some of the fans present.

Minute 66: El Nuevo Heraldo sports editor, Juan Carlos Sánchez, was videotaping one of the plays of the match when all of a sudden a Leones defender fired the ball right into his stomach. Although he didn’t double over completely, it did seem like he got the wind knocked out of him. “At least he didn’t hit my camera,” he said as a consolation. It seems that the video is pretty popular on a videos Web site.

Minute 68: (Yawn).

Minute 70: For the second time a Houston defender that didn’t want to complicate things sent the ball into the resaca. "Calm down," I heard among the fans. "Don’t you know that the ballboys also resigned!"

Minute 71: "Speaking of, what happened to the mascot, 'Piquín'?," I recalled while I yawned. "A mascot would liven me up a bit."

Minute 80: "Go back, go back, go back," shouted Nava at one of his teammates. "Speak nicely to him," the fans shouted back from the stands.

Minute 83: "'Chicles, ask for the sub," a fan urged. "Oh no, I forgot, just like the jerseys, they don’t have enough substitute players."

Minute 85: (Double yawn).

Minute 90: Final whistle.

With the tie, the Leones managed to obtain its second point of the season. The first point they accumulated was when they hosted the Bravos in Houston.

(Source: El Nuevo Heraldo of Brownsville)