As our Spain trip comes to a close I thought I would blog about the soccer experience encountered on our trip.
First of all my sister made it safely to Barcelona from Burkina Faso, where she is serving in the peace corp. We luckily found her wondering around the airport looking for us (Dad, Aaron, and I). Since the World Cup is in South Africa only 6 countries from the African continent will qualify. So, it will be a big deal if Burkina makes it, one because my sister is there and two because Burkina has never qualified for a World Cup. Unfortunately Burkina lost to the Ivory Coast on 6/20/09 by a score of 3-2. Burkina’s chance at making a World Cup appearance look slim. Full story here: http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=282465
During our stay in Barcelona the USA national team played the Spanish national team in the Confederation Cup, which was going on in South Africa as a test run to next year’s World Cup. The US shocked the world by beating Spain 2-0. The US handed Spain their first lost after winning 15 matches in a row and ended their 35 game winning streak. (http://soccerdelirium.com/2009/06/24/spain-loses-to-the-usa-ends-world-recording-winning-streak/). I was extremely surprised by the US win after their poor showing against Brazil a few day earlier. As we walked around Barcelona the day after the Spain lose it seemed as though the diehard Spanish soccer fans did not have that extra spring in their step and their heads were hanging a bit low.
Lastly, no visit to Europe would be complete without a stop to a soccer stadium. Even if you are not a soccer fan or a sports fan you have to appreciate the passion for organized sport. On this trip we were fortunate enough to visit three venues. We took the tour at Barcelona’s Camp Nou and Real Madrid’s Bernabeau and walked by the home of Madrid’s second best team Club Athletico de Madrid. From the outside these venues were not impressive by American sports facility standards and these venues were 50 years old or more. But once you stepped inside you felt the roar of the crowd even though there was no game going on. At Camp Nou they were setting up for the U2 360degree tour and at the Bernabeau they were rebuilding the field. The big news out of Real Madrid during our visit was the purchase of two new players for a whopping $160 million Euros (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=658814&cc=5901). By spending this money Real Madrid pick up Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal who played for Manchester United in England and Brazilian KAKA who played for AC Milan in Italy. This is not the first time they have gone to the bank trying to buy a championship, if you remember they picked up David Beckham a few years back and had a super star studded team and could do nothing.
Camp Nou, Barcelona
The Bernabeau, Madrid
this is too cool — my sons will be so jealous