It's on!
Well, tonight is gonna be huge! FC Barcelona plays AC Milan here in Barcelona in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final match-up. FCB scored an amazing goal to take somewhat of a surprise 1-0 victory last week in Italy, so they are in the driver's seat now. The task is simple ... win or tie and they head to Paris next month to take on Arsenal in the final.
Before I write too much more about tonight, I should probably back up a bit and explain how FCB got this far since I left off last time with them set to play Benfica here in the second-leg of the quarter-final. As I wrote before, Semana de Pasion here in Barca consisted of El Clasico against Real Madrid sandwiched between the quarter-final matches against Benfica. The fist Benfica match ended 0-0, so the return leg here was for all the marbles.
Fresh off my El Clasico night, I had to decide if I was gonna try to go to the Benfica game here, or watch the game in the pub. For the following two reasons, I decided to go the pub route for the Benfica game:
1. The night before the game, AC Milan completed a miracle comeback against Lyon in the other quarter-final. So I knew an FCB victory over Benfica meant a showdown with Milan and a ticket to an FCB-Milan game might rival FCB-Chelsea in terms of cost. (From what I have seen around town about the going prices, I was just about right... $300-$400 euros for a decent seat. Remember ... those prices are in euros.)
2. Just before the Benfica game, one of our local friends, Nacho (Yes, his name is Nacho) told us about this awesome locals-only bar where I could go watch the game. He promised the place was as authentic as they come, so much so that when a group of developers tried to buy it a few months back and turn it into condos, the whole neighborhood protested and quashed the deal. This may seem a random story, but as friends like Patrick Sweeney and Travis Barsotti will attest, my stand-by pub for watching soccer here in Barrio Gothico has always been Molli's Fair City, an Irish pub. It's a grand enough place and I know all the friendly servers, but it's far from the authentic Spanish experience. I've always wanted to find a place to watch football where I could get some local flavor, so Nacho's intel was too good to pass up.
So Kate and I went to the neighborhood Spanish bar and had a wonderful time. FCB beat Benfica 1-0 and marched on to Milan.
Last week's Milan game was awesome. Milan's stadium, the San Siro, is a ... ummm ... difficult place for opposing teams to play. The game started with FCB fighting for their lives. I think Milan hit the post twice in about the first five minutes. However, once FCB calmed down and got settled in, they started to get some chances of their own. FCB played well in the first half, but I'm not sure I've seen Ronaldinho play a worse 45 minutes of soccer. He couldn't even trap the ball without turning it over.
But....
When the second half started, ol' #10 was from another planet. There is a Nike commercial running right now that splices footage of Ronaldinho as a young boy with footage of him now. Those in the U.S. might recall Nike doing a similar commercial with Tiger Woods a couple years ago. Anyway, one of the scenes from Ronaldinho's boyhood days is of him flipping the ball over an opponent's head, running around him, and flipping it over the next opponent's head. It's understandable in the commercial because he and his opponents are about 10-years-old. Last week he did the same thing to two Milan players. These guys are millionaires and he made them look silly.
Ronaldinho basically decided at half-time last week to come out and put on one of the most freakishly amazing halves of football I have ever seen. And of course it culminated with him toying with about three Milan defenders, drawing all the attention to himself, then lofting a perfect pass to teammate Giuly, who slammed home an incredible finish to give FCB a 1-0 lead.
Ronaldinho almost brought the San Siro to its knees moments later when again, facing three defenders, he sliced a not-so-hard-but-perfectly-placed shot to the far post. It beat the keeper, hit the INSIDE of the post, then rolled harmlessly across the front of the goal before the keeper recovered and smothered it. Another inch to the inside, and FCB win 2-0.
So tonight could be intense. The Milan fans have been out in full force most of the day and there is certainly an increased energy when you walk out on La Rambla. Everyone knows the stakes of tonight's game and everyone knows anything can happen. Milan are definitely a good enough team to rally from the 1-0 deficit and beat FCB. I really don't want to even make a prediction as to who will win, but I am certainly hoping FCB will send the Milan boys home unhappy and advance to the final in Paris.
As for me, it looks like Kate and I are headed to our new locals-only pub. They went out of their way to take us in and show us we are part of their community now. On a night with some much at stake for FCB fans, if I can't be in the Camp Nou, there's no place I'd rather be than with them.
Before I write too much more about tonight, I should probably back up a bit and explain how FCB got this far since I left off last time with them set to play Benfica here in the second-leg of the quarter-final. As I wrote before, Semana de Pasion here in Barca consisted of El Clasico against Real Madrid sandwiched between the quarter-final matches against Benfica. The fist Benfica match ended 0-0, so the return leg here was for all the marbles.
Fresh off my El Clasico night, I had to decide if I was gonna try to go to the Benfica game here, or watch the game in the pub. For the following two reasons, I decided to go the pub route for the Benfica game:
1. The night before the game, AC Milan completed a miracle comeback against Lyon in the other quarter-final. So I knew an FCB victory over Benfica meant a showdown with Milan and a ticket to an FCB-Milan game might rival FCB-Chelsea in terms of cost. (From what I have seen around town about the going prices, I was just about right... $300-$400 euros for a decent seat. Remember ... those prices are in euros.)
2. Just before the Benfica game, one of our local friends, Nacho (Yes, his name is Nacho) told us about this awesome locals-only bar where I could go watch the game. He promised the place was as authentic as they come, so much so that when a group of developers tried to buy it a few months back and turn it into condos, the whole neighborhood protested and quashed the deal. This may seem a random story, but as friends like Patrick Sweeney and Travis Barsotti will attest, my stand-by pub for watching soccer here in Barrio Gothico has always been Molli's Fair City, an Irish pub. It's a grand enough place and I know all the friendly servers, but it's far from the authentic Spanish experience. I've always wanted to find a place to watch football where I could get some local flavor, so Nacho's intel was too good to pass up.
So Kate and I went to the neighborhood Spanish bar and had a wonderful time. FCB beat Benfica 1-0 and marched on to Milan.
Last week's Milan game was awesome. Milan's stadium, the San Siro, is a ... ummm ... difficult place for opposing teams to play. The game started with FCB fighting for their lives. I think Milan hit the post twice in about the first five minutes. However, once FCB calmed down and got settled in, they started to get some chances of their own. FCB played well in the first half, but I'm not sure I've seen Ronaldinho play a worse 45 minutes of soccer. He couldn't even trap the ball without turning it over.
But....
When the second half started, ol' #10 was from another planet. There is a Nike commercial running right now that splices footage of Ronaldinho as a young boy with footage of him now. Those in the U.S. might recall Nike doing a similar commercial with Tiger Woods a couple years ago. Anyway, one of the scenes from Ronaldinho's boyhood days is of him flipping the ball over an opponent's head, running around him, and flipping it over the next opponent's head. It's understandable in the commercial because he and his opponents are about 10-years-old. Last week he did the same thing to two Milan players. These guys are millionaires and he made them look silly.
Ronaldinho basically decided at half-time last week to come out and put on one of the most freakishly amazing halves of football I have ever seen. And of course it culminated with him toying with about three Milan defenders, drawing all the attention to himself, then lofting a perfect pass to teammate Giuly, who slammed home an incredible finish to give FCB a 1-0 lead.
Ronaldinho almost brought the San Siro to its knees moments later when again, facing three defenders, he sliced a not-so-hard-but-perfectly-placed shot to the far post. It beat the keeper, hit the INSIDE of the post, then rolled harmlessly across the front of the goal before the keeper recovered and smothered it. Another inch to the inside, and FCB win 2-0.
So tonight could be intense. The Milan fans have been out in full force most of the day and there is certainly an increased energy when you walk out on La Rambla. Everyone knows the stakes of tonight's game and everyone knows anything can happen. Milan are definitely a good enough team to rally from the 1-0 deficit and beat FCB. I really don't want to even make a prediction as to who will win, but I am certainly hoping FCB will send the Milan boys home unhappy and advance to the final in Paris.
As for me, it looks like Kate and I are headed to our new locals-only pub. They went out of their way to take us in and show us we are part of their community now. On a night with some much at stake for FCB fans, if I can't be in the Camp Nou, there's no place I'd rather be than with them.
posted by Sean McMahon | 7:03 PM
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