Veni, Vidi, Vici - Patetico Madrid-Barcelona 0-6

Hola!
Yesterday I came back from possibly the best weekend ever! A combination of several factors – mainly one though – meant the greatest time in a long time, if not ever. But first thing’s first. Last week, after coming home from abroad, we had a lot of work to catch up on. Our big and final Spanish exam for one, but also other assignments that our teachers told us to do if we wanted to pass our courses (which I guess we want in the end…) Thursday was the final day of Spanish and the exam went okay. I passed it. :-) That of course meant that we had to celebrate and out we went.

The Friday came and that day meant finishing everything that needed to be handed in, packing and preparing in general for a weekend in Spain’s capital with my dear older brother. You see for a while my bro and I had talked about him coming here for a visit and a football game. He found a weekend which worked for him, and a game of interest and booked an airplane ticket. So after checking in to our hostal just off Gran Via, central Madrid, we went to the Vicente Calderon stadium in order to see if the tickets were truly finished or if there was a possibility to still find a couple of seats. After some walking, some pep talk and some talking (in Spanish) to a bartender, we bought ourselves some ridiculously expensive tickets to the game of our choice – Atletico Madrid-Barcelona FC - and went back to the city centre to celebrate. The weather was wonderful, some 30 degrees during the day and around 22 later that evening. Some tapas, mojitos and beers later we were back in our room and made plans for the next day.

We decided that that specific Sunday was to be dedicated to our greatest interest, football, completely. Jocke found that it was possible to take a tour at the other big stadium in the city, Santiago Bernabéu stadium (the home of Real Madrid, which takes about 80 000 spectators), and we decided that while some go to Madrid and go to the Prado museum, we went to Madrid to go to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Jocke who had already been to the Prado, said that the stadium was far more interesting. I think I probably would agree (but as I haven’t been to the Prado yet I guess I can’t be all sure about it…). To walk around inside the stadium, to sit in the spectator chairs, on the ‘bench’ and see the museum of Real’s greatness was truly an experience worth our time and money. After a couple of hours of walking around, we went back home to the hostal to change and then have a quick drink with my friends before going to the actual highlight of that day and of the weekend itself.

So to the game. Anyone who hasn’t seen the result yet? Well, it was 6-0 to Barca. And we, the lucky bastards that we were, got seats among the Barcelona supporters. Imagine watching all the great ones, last year’s CL winners and some of the world’s best players play your favourite sport. For me it was complete happiness, and for my brother too. But it was really difficult to grasp that we were there, sitting next to some Icelandic people who only wanted to see Eidur Gudjohnsen play, screaming Barca, and the players’ names. It was truly unbelievable. The last 7 minutes of the first half of the game were filled with 3 beautiful goals and suddenly the rain that had been falling, making me completely wet, didn’t bother me anymore. There were greater things to pay attention to.

The second half came and with it 3 more beautiful goals, and as Deco was to be exchanged and all the Barca supporters and myself chanted his name my brother turned to me and looked at me. I replied by saying “When will we ever get the chance again to chant his name not to the TV or to the radio, but to him at a stadium during a match?”. Needless to say Jocke chanted just as much after that. How many can say that they have screamed ‘Messi, Messi’ to the actual Messi? How many has been clapping and chanting ‘Barca’ to the real Barcelona team? I have. My brother have. And all the other Barcelona supporters have as well. And talking about chanting, while the Barca supporters were ridiculing their derby-oponents Espanyol (even though they were playing against Atletico), we joined them and just changed their Espanyol for Helsingborg. It is important to know where you stand, no matter which game or which opponents.

The best part of the game, apart from the goals was in the beginning of the second half. Barcelona started kicking the ball within the team, and no Atletico players had a chance to even touch the ball for about 10 minutes or so. As more and more Atletico fans left the stadium we didn’t want to stop chanting our great Barcelona team. The funniest end was when the Barcelona supporters started calling their opponents ‘Patetico’ Madrid instead of Atletico. ;-)

After the game we contacted my friends again and met up with them, making the short Dublin-reunion longer and bigger. Naoise, Martin and Pablo were visiting Miguelito this very weekend and it was great seeing all of them again. Some friendships are not complicated at all, just there, now and forever, and that’s what makes them special.

The last full day in Madrid was for shopping, enjoying good food and drinks and realising that we had been there. We were at the crazy game and saw Ronaldhino do a free kick. We saw Messi score, not once, but twice. We saw it all. Jocke said it was the greatest football game he had ever been to, and I could not do anything but agree. Of course it wasn’t as emotional as seeing Malmö play the really important (or any really) matches. But it was Barcelona who completely humiliated Atletico Madrid. And that is something to remember.

To finish off this blog entry I have to say that Jocke is the hero of my blog and ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Hope to be back soon with more exciting news. Although will anything seem great after this ever again?
/k