Hi Everyone,
I’m on my last of three nights in Barcelona. Last night, coincidentally the biggest and best known of Barcelona’s major soccer teams, Barcelona FC, hosted a game against Real Sociedad. I figure that was too good to pass up, so I grabbed a ticket and went to the game.
Barcelona’s stadium, Camp Nou is big. I mean, you might think your local stadium is big, but that’s just peanuts to Camp Nou. Camp Nou holds over 110,000 people when it’s filled to capacity. Which it wasn’t last night. Not even close. It might have been about 1/3 full, which is still pretty good for a soccer game on a Wednesday night that starts at 10 pm. But the problem with enormous stadiums is that if they’re not full, it’s easy to feel isolated. Of course, since I barely speak any Spanish and am traveling alone, it’s easy for me to feel isolated anyhow.
Here are some things I noticed about the experience and the game.
There was one section of fans down at the bottom who were having a ton of fun. They spent the whole time jumping up and down, waving banners, and leading songs and chants that the rest of the stadium picked up. They must have been a supporters club or something. Many of their cheers sounded familiar. I took notes and positively or partially identified a bunch: Yellow Submarine, Stars and Stripes Forever, theme from Carmen or Marriage of Figaro or something which I should probably know, something that sounded vaguely Southern or old-timey which might have been Camptown Races and which I recorded as “Bah bah bu bah bu bah bu bah ba da da du da da dah da dah,” and finally Yankee Doodle.
The stadium was more clearly designed to prevent riots than any I’ve been to in the States. Each section had a specific entrance at the bottom of the stadium and once you entered, you climbed all the way up in your own staircase. No mingling with people from other sections and no overwhelming numbers if you needed to get out in a hurry. Once above, there was a little more leeway in moving from section to section, but more than four or five sections down there were medal gates closing off that area from the next. The concessions were also (although maybe not for riot control reasons) pretty rudimentary. They sold hot dogs, sausages, beer, soda, and potato chips. No more, no less.
The game itself was not much to write home about (although that won’t stop me, will it?) Barcelona was clearly superior and from the first few minutes the game took on an air of tragic inevitability that I only really enjoy when I’m rooting for the underdog. After about four chances that should have resulted in goals, Barcelona put one through. Following the goal, one of Real Sociedad’s players must have said something bad to the ref and was sent off with either a second yellow or a red card. Down a man and already outclassed, the game was pretty much over. Barcelona seemed content to win on their superior talent and didn’t seem like they were trying all that hard.
That’s it for now, perhaps more later,
Ezra