After class, I took a siesta from 5-6:30, woke up, showered, put on my
Barca shirt AND Barca hoodie, grabbed my camera and ham sandwich I’d been
saving since breakfast, and made the walk across town to the stadium. When I got there at 7:15, the
gates weren't open yet so I just wandered around and checked out the whole
scene. When I got to the backside of the
stadium, there was a HUGE crowd of people lined up along the street and a bunch
of crowd control officers on horseback pacing back and forth, forcing the
people back as they inched forward to get the best view they could. Confused at first, I quickly realized that
this was where the team buses would pull up and drop off the players! How exciting!
The crowd was rambunctious so I followed suit and jostled for position
on the opposite side of the street, in the very front. This was my view while I waited:
After 20 minutes of standing there on my tip-toes, trying to see anything at all, things finally got exciting: first came the Valencia team bus, and as soon as it rounded
the corner at the end of the street and started coming towards us, the crowd
started singing—no, yelling—the Valencia “fight song” I guess you could call
it. All in perfect unison, too. When the bus finally stopped in front of the
stadium, the camera flashes went crazy in welcoming the home team. The coach stepped off first and waved to the
crowd and everyone went nuts and cheered even louder. Then the players filed off, all wearing big
headphones, and the crowd yelled out each of their names. Finally, the team’s best player and all-time
leading goalscorer—a man who goes by one name only: Soldado (Soldier)—stepped
off last and waved to the crowd and everyone went crazy again and sang a very
triumphant, personal song about him.
Very cool. I was on the other
side of the street so I couldn’t get a great
view of the players, but this is what their bus and the crowd looked like:
Unfortunate for the home team, though, most of the
excitement in the air was thanks to the visitors, who rounded the same corner
20 minutes later. By the time
Barcelona’s bus was in sight, the crowd was honestly TWICE as big, with TWICE
as many camera flashes, and TWICE as many songs being sung. The huge amount of Barca fans in the crowd
started out with their team song that went something like: “Forza Barca! Vamos el equipo!” (Go Barca! Let’s go team!) but the Valencia faithful could only put up
with that for so long and quickly drowned it out with a retaliation song of
their own: “Puta Barca! Puta
Catalunya!” (F*** Barca! F*** Catalunya [the part of Spain where
Barcelona is located]). This would be a
common theme throughout the night…
Since the crowd was so much bigger and rowdier for the Barca
arrival, I couldn’t get a great view of much at all. This is the best picture I got of the bus,
but I know it’s pretty disappointing:
Since I couldn’t even see any of the players getting off, I
decided to just go ahead and beat the crowd into the stadium and find my seat before
things got too crazy…
I showed my ticket and entered the stadium and luckily the
stairs DOWN to my seat were right in front of me so I didn’t have to ask
anyone where to go. The girl at the
entrance to the section asked for my ticket and I showed her and she smiled and
said, “Primera Fila—buen asiento!” (Front row—great seat!) and I smiled back
and walked all the way down to the very…front…row. The view blew me away:
Absolutely stunning. My
seat was on the small side of the stadium with the biggest side across the
field from me--just a WALL of people
stacked and stacked and stacked on top of each other. Such a cool backdrop to the amazing
field. Here’s the rest of the stadium
from where I was sitting:
When I first got there, the stadium was pretty empty
and no one was on the field yet except for four or five guys standing right in
the middle dressed in matching red sweatsuits.
I didn’t think much of it and assumed that they were younger bench
players from one of the teams, checking out the stadium and atmosphere of a game they only wished they could play in someday, but as they walked
off the field and got a bit closer, I realized that XAVI HERNANDEZ, a Spanish
legend and my favorite player on the whole team—the guy who’s playing style I
model my own after—was the one leading the way!
I realized it too late and didn’t have a chance to get out my camera,
but it was cool to at least get to see him in person for a moment. Especially considering that he was
mysteriously “injured” and didn’t even play in the game! A bummer for sure, but again, at least I got
to see him for a second…
About 10 minutes later, Valencia came out and started their
warm-up. I always enjoy watching how
professional players get ready for a game: how they run, how they stretch, how
they get loose and how serious (or unserious) they take the warm up process. Lots of juggling and practicing tricks, lots
of little 4v1, monkey-in-the-middle type games, lots of hitting long passes to
each other across the field. The
goalkeepers are fun to watch, too, as they are completely isolated in their
warm up and do lots of funny-looking jumping and diving and rolling around
exercises in front of the goal. On the
whole, the Valencia warm up seemed very relaxed and FUN, which, considering how
big of a game this was, impressed me very much.
Never good to take things TOO seriously, right? It is just a game after all…
About 15 minutes after Valencia came out, Barcelona ran on
to the field and started their warm up, which the crowd met with boo’s and
“Puta Barca!” chants again. The
differences in their preparations for the game were small but noteworthy: they
jogged across the field as a team, stretched in a circle as a team, and did a
prelimary passing exercise as a team before finally breaking off into personal
stuff. They did things with much more togetherness than Valencia did, and I
thought this was very interesting. Here
are the pictures:
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| MESSI! |
With about 10 minutes until kickoff, both teams jogged off
the field and went to their respective locker rooms:
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| Midfield Maestro Cesc Fabregas |
 |
| Defensive Midfielder Sergio Busquets |
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| Center Back Javier Mascherano |
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| Defensive Legend Carlos Puyol |
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| Center Back Gerard Pique, who juggled the ball over the awning |
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| Goalkeeper Victor Valdes |
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| The Little Genius, Lio Messi |
The field was empty once again, but now the
stadium was packed completely full and ROCKING with chants and whistles and
horns. With five minutes to go, a team
of seven and eight year-old kids dressed in the traditional Valencia yellow and
red came onto the field and took this team photo with the Valencia mascot:
Pretty cool. But as
soon as they ran off, the Spanish national anthem started up and the REAL teams
marched onto the field. The raucous
crowd chanted and cheered louder than ever, completely drowning out the unity,
sending an emphatic welcome to the two teams as they filed onto the pitch.
After that, they all shook hands and went to their
respective sides to take their official pre-game team photos:
THEN, the players assumed their places on the field and the
referee blew the whistle to start the game!
The electricity in the air in those opening seconds is something I will
never forget: the culmination of my love for soccer climaxing in one supreme moment. The camera flashes, the cheering, the rumble
of the crowd—it was an energy so real and so strong, pulsing from my feet to my
fingers, that all I could do was close my eyes and think This is It. What an extraordinary feeling it was…
The opening minutes of the game matched the crowd’s
enthusiasm, but there was not much “futbol” to be seen—just lots of aimless
kicking and sprinting and fighting for loose balls, as both teams seemed
overeager and anxious and caught up in the energy of the moment. Things slowed down to a normal pace after a
few minutes, though, and soon Barca was hitting their groove and knocking it
around nicely as they like to do.
Valencia were forced to play a counter-attack style of play as their first
priority of course was to contain the best player in the world. They won the
ball, though, in a few advantageous spots on the field and strung together some
nice passes and attacked well and got a view good shots off. Barcelona was without their two main
center-midfielders, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, who are the real engines
of the team and dictate their style of play.
This made things a bit difficult for Messi, playing without the world-class
playmakers behind him, but he had a couple nice moves and fancy footwork stuff
that made the crowd (and me!) Ooh and Aah nonetheless. Just like the TIME magazine article said, the
ball really does stick right next to his foot “like a sixth toe!” It was truly amazing to watch his dribbling
skills up close from where I was sitting, and there were a couple times where
my mouth literally dropped in
disbelief. He’s a special player, that’s
for sure.
At about the 30-minute mark, though, things changed in favor
of the home team: Valencia stole the
ball in Barcelona’s half and started an attack down the left side. The winger beat his defender and got to the
endline, then crossed the ball on the ground in the box, just out of the reach
of a sliding Carlos Puyol, to a trailing midfielder who buried his shot in the
top corner of the net. 1-0
Valencia. The crowd went absolutely
wild! They have a chant they do when
they score where they pretty much just sing the word “Gol!” over and over
again, and I don’t know that I’ve heard anything louder in my life! Though as a Barca fan I was a bit
disappointed, I couldn’t help but sing along and be happy and celebrate with
the rest of the stadium. Another great,
great moment.
 |
| 1-0 Valencia |
Ten minutes later, though, just a few minutes before
halftime, Barcelona got a corner kick and came back with a goal of their own,
thanks to the captain and legend Carlos Puyol.
The Valencia goalkeeper was definitely to blame, caught in the
no-man’s-land between coming out to catch the cross and staying in the goal to
stop the shot, but Puyol nonetheless headed the ball perfectly, tying the game
and silencing the crowd. I cheered to
myself and pretended to be mad, not wanting to further anger the Valencia fans
chanting “Puta Barca!” all around me...
 |
| 1-1 |
The teams went into halftime tied 1-1.
The halftime show was not so spectacular:
just a small marching band playing Spanish songs and doing laps around the
field.
Nothing much else happened so
I’ll just skip ahead to the second half…
The teams came out in the second half with high energy like
the first, which soon wore off and fell back to the Barca-possession,
Valencia-counter attack groove that they left with. There were a few good chances for both teams,
the best going to Barca when one of their players was fouled in the box, earning
a penalty kick. The crowd went crazy,
contesting the challenge and the call, but nonetheless, the referee awarded
Barca a kick from the spot. Of course,
Messi, the best player in the whole world, stepped up to take it, but the
result was not what you would expect.
Here—check out the video that one of my friends took and see for yourself:
If that one doesn't work, then this one's just as good:
I couldn’t believe it!
As loud as the crowd was when Valencia scored, it was twice as loud when
the keeper made this HUGE save! I was
stunned but cheered along anyway—gotta give credit where credit is due,
right? What a save!
So the game stayed 1-1 and Valencia fed off the energy of
the crowd and picked up their pace a bit.
The Valencia coach made some good substitutions at key positions and
continued to keep the pressure on Barca, earning a few really good chances on
goal. There were a few questionable
calls and no-calls late in the game, most all in favor of Barca, which prompted
the crowd to really voice their opinion!
As the final minutes and seconds ticked off the clock, both teams
delivered their final charge and came close but not close enough. The game ended 1-1—a well-deserved, very good
result for the home side, which puts them in a good position for the second,
decisive leg of the matchup next week in Barcelona. Win and they’re in the finals; tie and score
at least 2 goals, they’re in the finals; lose and they’re out. Gotta feel pretty good about that. And as for Barca, the pressure is on!
Overall, the game was an incredible experience that lived up
to all expectations. The weather was
great, the crowd was great, the game was great, and best of all, my seat was
great! Are you ready to see how great? Ladies and gentleman, I present to you…front
row at the Copa del Rey semifinal:
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| Lionel Messi |
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| 3-Time World Player of The Year |
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| Dani Alves |
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| Cesc Fabregas |
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| The corner kick that Barca scored on. |
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| The lone Frenchman on the field, Eric Abidal |
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| Alexis, after a foul |
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| Gerard Pique |
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| Shakira's boyfriend |
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| Sergio Busquets |
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| Javier Mascherano |
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| The Legendary Carlos Puyol |
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| Barca coach, Pep Guardiola |
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| One minute left! |
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| Me, after the game |
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| A great night at La Mestalla |
Until next time...
Much love to all.
C
Absolutely incredible pictures! Insane how close you were. SO jealous.
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