FC Barcelona 3 - Osasuna AC 0
We were able to score some tickets (well, we dropped some serious coin for them) to see FC Barcelona play their first league game at home last night. For those who aren’t aware (Bev, if you’re reading, you can skip down to the next paragraph), FC Barcelona is one of the world’s better football (soccer) clubs. Their roster boasts some of the biggest names in the sport: Ronaldino, Deco, Messi, Eto’o, Zambrotta, etc. Their stadium (Camp Nou) holds 120,000 crazy fans and is the second biggest stadium in the world.
Our three tickets were in different spots in the stadium, but Jamie and I ended up 12 rows behind the Barça goal! We got to see all three Barça goals (Eto’o scored 2 and Messi 1) right up close. It was amazing. Despite how close we were, it was tough to see the action on the other side of the pitch, so our seats weren’t really as good as they seemed. But we got to see the goals up close.
We were also right behind the Barça cheering section. Lots of horns, flags, chants, songs, etc. We learned some of the chants towards the end of the match. One chant we picked up ended with “Barça, Barça, Baaaaaarrrrrça!” but the Catalans here pronounce the ‘ç’ as a ‘th’ so it sounds like Bartha, Bartha, Barrrrtha!. Pretty funny stuff.
It wasn’t really a great game (Barça overpowered the other team) but it was certainly a fun atmosphere. Not as wild as I thought. No hooligans or anything like that. Lots of smart, intelligent fans who just watched the game and chanted every now and then.