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| Before the game |
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| FC Barcelona |
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| Crowd |
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| Cute girl sitting in front of us |
On February 20, 2011, I went to see FC Barcelona play Altletic Club Bilbao at Camp Nou. Being an American, the experience was very different from any other sporting event that I had been to. The first thing that I noticed was the sheer size of the stadium. With a capacity of 98,787, Camp Nou is the largest stadium in Europe. In America, only college football stadiums come close in capacity. At the start of the game, all of the players are introduced by name. Each the announcement of each name, the crowd yells “Rey,” meaning King in Spanish. The FC Barcelona team also has an anthem that the entire stadium sings before each match. The anthem, “El Cant del Barca” sounds like a very old song that speaks about brotherhood and unification. I also noticed that there was no alcohol served in the game which is very different from any American sporting event where everyone is usually drunk. Nevertheless, the game was an enjoyable experience. The game was very close all the way through. The action started right away with a David Villa goal in the fourth minute. The game became quite stagnant afterward with a lot of change of possessions. In the second half, Bilbao made things interesting by stepping up their offense and controlling the ball right away. Bilbao’s Andoni Iraola tied the game up with a goal only five minutes into the second half. Things really heated up after this and the crowd was getting very loud. The game started getting quite aggressive after two yellow cards for Barcelona in the second half alone. Then in the 78th minute, FC Barcelona’s savior, the young Lionel Messi, scored a goal putting Barcelona up 2 to 1 with only 12 minutes to play. The crowd roared and bowed their heads to the most talented striker in La Liga. Overall, I was very impressed by European futbol and I will have a new perspective on sports when I return home to the United States.
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