Futbol

This whole voyage, the one constant that people in every country have wanted to talk about was soccer. I have never been a fan, but being in Barcelona we had the opportunity to see FC Barcelona play Vila Real. These are two Spanish teams playing in the Spanish league.

The night we arrived in Barcelona, we got to see the cops break up a small scale riot caused by local soccer fans in a post game celebration. People are crazy about soccer, and this got us pretty excited. We all bought some Barcelona apparel and headed for the stadium.

I’ve never watched much soccer, but seeing it in person was a completely different thing. These guys are incredibly conditioned athletes, and I couldn’t believe how hard they could sprint over and over, all game long. The stadium was packed and the fans were awesome. The old man behind me kept yelling “Burro, Burro, Hijo de puta!” whenever the other team would make a move. At the end of the match we were treated to an amazing goal scored by Ronaldinho, who I recognized from a poster on the wall when Jeff and I were drinking with those old dudes in Kurdistan a few weeks back. He was passed the ball from across the field, bounced it off his chest and then turned, flipped, and bicycle kicked it perfectly into the corner of the goal. Bravo!