Barcelona Game

First of all I'd like to thank my dad, and his friends Jordi and Brent for making this possible.  After the Estadi Olímpic (see previous post), we made our way to Camp Nou.  For those of you that don't know, that is FC Barcelona's 100,000 seat stadium.  I was basically freaking out the whole metro ride there and every where else until I got to my seat.  Oh my god.  Probably one of the coolest things I've ever done.  Hmm game info... The match was between Barcelona and Valencia at 20:00.  At that time Valencia was in first place in La Liga and Barca was in third so it was a decently important match (even though its early in the season).  We got there roughly two and a half hours early just to make sure that we could locate our tickets and whatever else.  They were going to be at the Megastore.  What a name.  It took what seemed like miles of walking to get around the stadium to the MEGAstore, but when we did I found the manager, Eladio, fairly quickly.  Very friendly guy.  I felt super special when he took me through all the employee only doors that required a special badge to open.  The point that I felt most cool was when he asked ME if I worked at the Nike World Campus.  That is like two to three times as good as getting asked by tourists for directions in Sevilla.  After we knew that we had our tickets for sure, we went got a hot dog (perro caliente ja ja) and chilled on some grass outside the stadium.  I think I had been holding my breath the entire time.

The metro stop we got off at for the game (can you tell how excited I was?)

FC Barcelona offices

They had the whole starting line-up set up in both kits. My picture of the turquoise uni's was blurry :(

This is what happens when 100,000 people show up a couple hours before the game starts, about an hour before the gates even open.

Yes

The stadium. Kelsey looks so happy!

Damn Catalan

There were two ramps like this below it, and the same on the opposite side. So huge.

Third level, but perfect view. What you can't see is my hand squeezing the life? out of the railing. the stadium was steep!

To the right of my seats.

I look so stupid in this picture but I wanted one with the Nike swoosh. To the left of my seats.

Different view.

Crazy fan section.

Before kick-off.  They also did the little kid thing but I didn't get a picture.

Uhhhhh ya.

Goal Valencia. Pablo in the 38th minute. 1-0.

Goal Iniesta, 47th minute. A little late on the picture. 1-1

Puyol! Heart of a Lion! 63rd minute. Barcelona 2-1

The game got intense. Fight fight fight.

Interesting things about the match:
-Every time the Valencia keeper got the ball he would waste time and the crowd would whistle so high-pitched it was deafening.  The keeper was actually joking around with the crowd at time too it was funny.
-I sat next to a German, had a French person in front of me, Americans behind me (my friends), a Catalunyan, and Spaniards around me.
-They only sell non-alcoholic beer
-Messi had an amazing diving chest goal called back for offsides.  That would have been the coolest thing ever if I had those three players score.
-Concession stands in Spain are crap. They're just carts set up against the concrete backing with maybe a mini fridge or two. There are no concession stands that were built into the stadium.
-Barca sucked in the first half but then went crazy in the second.  Shot after shot after shot.  David Villa is a choke artist and he paints some pretty beautiful pieces.

There are so many different things I could say about this game but I am getting very tired and blogging has replaced homework recently. I'll do Sunday when I can.  Hopefully it is before go to Cordoba tomorrow!  Amsterdam next week!  Feel free to visit.