Gooool!!
So, my first football experience… not as terrifying as I had first imagined.
On Saturday night I watched my first football game ever – and that English Soccer, not American football for all my new American readers! It was a local Derby, Espanol and Barcelona FC, but far from being packed with rival fans apparently the Barcelona fans boycott games in the Espanol stadium – Spaniards!?
The walk up to the Stadium itself was amazing, along this long promenade with music, colour and light show amongst all these huge fountains. You then walk up to this amazing palace (or rather you take the escalator thanks to s many American visitors I guess!) which is lit up with spotlights and has an amazing view across the city from the top – I’ll post photos ASAP!
Anyway, despite being a little intimidated by the chanting fans in the car park and the noise which my paranoid mind would have me believe was gun shot but far more likely a drum, we made it to the stadium without incident.
Cutting a long story short the stadium was incredibly impressive (for a stadium virgin like me anyway) and the noise and the singing was fantastic. I particularly liked the choice of pre-match music which was largely Faith Hill and other early 90s school disco classics! Maybe it was to keep the rivals calm but it seemed unnecessary s here can’t have been more than 300 Barcelona fans there.
we were sat above (and not nearly a safe enough distance away in my mind) from a particularly militant band of Espanol fans, who were so engrossed in their chanting and shouting abuse that they actually seemed to watch even less of the game than my American friend who managed to sleep through the entire first half!
Anyway, back to the Espanol militia…. its good to know that football fans around the world share common interests and that tearing off your shirt to reveal sagging tattoos and riding a wire fence like a rodeo, isn’t behaviour limited to our own dear British hooligans! But give them credit, they were incredibly organised… lining themselves to hold up signs and moon the opposition in neat lines us Brits would be proud of. They had even gone to the trouble of choosing the Burberry clad warrior (oh yes they are an international bunch) with the nicest singing voice to lead the chants.
The chants themselves were generally what you would expect, straight forward abuse. There was however a particularly enjoyable homage to the Pet Shop Boys classic, Go West!!
Before the game I had very firmly assured everyone that we would not be wearing any particular team colours or any other identifying marks, in case we wound up in the wrong section of the crowd. But after just five minutes of the game I really started to wish I had an Espanyol scalf. It was like being 13 again, at my first Boyzone concert (yes there was more than one!) and not having a band t-shirt to wear!
On the subject of my dubious teenage fashion sense… the Barcelona goal keeper (its enough I know his possition lets not get carried away with names!) was wearing a pretty nifty little leggings and white socks combo, not dissimilar to how I used to wear them in the late 80s – come on girls, you all remember, with the tartan skirt?!
We left the match at about 12:30 after a nail biting finish with Espanol bringing the score to 3-1 to them in the dying minutes if the game. We wanderred back down the avenue cheering and smiling away, and waving at a rather wobbly fan on a pink girls bike, as if we´d been born Espanol fans.
There are plenty more interesting annecdotes I have about my first football experience, not least the rather entertaining british stag party who managed to pick up women during the match or the fact that my friend Jenni managed to get her face in the local press for being an American at the game!! But I´ll leave it there for now as this is already a long post.
Hope everyone is great, thank you for all your e-mails, I promise I will reply asap but I´m still pretty busy, its taken me a week to write this!!
Adios!
Tags: Barcelona, Football
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Hey Guys,nrnrJust a quick one to wish you both well.nrnrNothing to really report here – but it sounds like you’re both doing well (and studying hard I hope!)nrnrKathi, I can’t believe I missed you going to your first footie match – what a sight to behold!!! Can you explain the offside rule now?!nrnrAnyway, missing you loads already!!nrnrLove nrGill & Paul
Hello travellers of the world!!
I’m very proud of you Kathi sounds like you survived the football well, can i take you to a rugby game next?
Sounds like you are having all the fun, my highlight today was watching one of the chickens nearly getting blown away in the stormy weather!
Look after yourselves so I can come and visit soon!
Miss you lots,
Becs x x x x x