Leisure Activity For the record, I have been a huge soccer fan for years. I have been playing competitively for 10 years now. Soccer is by far my favorite sport. I was super excited to come to Spain and be with people who share this passion with me, unlike in the States. I knew soccer was a huge part of life here in Spain so I was very excited to share this asset of culture with them. In Barcelona, soccer is life. As I learned in Xavi’s class, there is so much more to soccer than rooting for your hometown’s team. It is extremely political and cultural and defines who a person is. Barca fans have a different attitude towards the game than Real Madrid fans. It is similar to comparing Chicago Cubs fans and Chicago White Sox fans. Simply by someone wearing a t-shirt supporting their team, I know where they live in the city and what kind of person they are. I did not know about this aspect of soccer. I thought I was supporting my city of Barcelona when I bought my Barca shirt. I had no idea that I was inadvertently supporting one of the extremist political parties in Catalunya. This is a major reason why soccer is such a big cultural aspect in Spain.
Tickets to see FC Barcelona play in at their home stadium, Camp Nu, are priced depending on their competition. When Real Madrid came to play Barcelona, if I could find a ticket, the cheapest one would be around 200 euros. For this reason my friends and I went to the home game against Cultural Leonesa. The tickets were 7 euros for the top sections. There was NOBODY at the stadium. Seriously, nobody. My friends and I were the only people in my entire section. But it was still really fun. We got to see Barca play at home and won 5-0. For me, watching them play together was an inspiration. Their skill level makes the game completely different from what I know as soccer. I could not keep my eyes off the quick feet of Messi and Xavi. I felt truly lucky to be in the presence of some of the best players in the world. Barca is an incredible team with an incredible following.
No comments:
Post a Comment