After one year of me living in Barcelona, my dad came for a visit. Before his trip, he emitted two wishes: to go and see a clasico match in Camp Nou and get a picture with Messi…Of course…the most popular-almost-impossible-to-get-a-ticket-for match in Barcelona…Can I do miracles? So here I am talking about my life’s challenges at coffee time in work. And a friend directed me to one colleague of ours. He is Catalan and a season ticket holder. The two aspects seem to be interconnected. It seems like a lot of Catalan family members pass on their season tickets through generations because it is hard to get them and because they like to go and see the matches on a regular basis.
I got two tickets to Camp Nou!
Luckily for me, I got two tickets (I seem to be able to do miracles after all!). I cannot really send my dad out there on his own can I? But OMG, with what I paid for them, I could easily go on a nice week end in Roma, all expenses paid. Why is it so expensive? My consolations are to think that love has no price and also that in each place you live there is this one unmissable-once upon a lifetime event you have to go to. In Ireland, it would be a U2 concert in Croke Park which I never did. Here in Barcelona, it would be a clasico match in Camp Nou. Even Japanese tourists plan it on their visit!
What about this clasico match?
So why is it called a clasico match anyway? Well, it is the name given to any match between Real Madrid and FCB. The two biggest teams in Spain belonging to two rival cities. And apparently it is followed by hundred millions of people in the world. So I keep on being privileged by watching it live…
The match starts with the Barça song – El Cant del Barca – that you sing or clap to once everyone is on the pitch. I hope I will not offend my Catalan readers but it sounds to me like an old fashioned communist song broadcasted on the radio :). Then, they tell each player’s name. When it is Barca’s team’s turn, the whole stadium acclaims “hey”: Messi “hey”, Pujol “hey” and so on and so on…
I liked the atmosphere in the stadium. Where we were, there was this only one Madrid fan in black and white and nobody teased him nor booed him. Every one was there for sport, there were no fights between supporters. It was all very civilised. The Barca fans are also supporting for the best and the worst. Sometimes I felt like going to the game was a patriotic/identity act. Why not? Only one thing made me feel uncomfortable though: the people chanting “Independence” during the match. That is a political standpoint and sorry, for me a game is about sport and should remain about sport, no politics should be involved.
On the other hand, I am used to noisy, passionate fans that would scream all their heart out to encourage their club. And that was missing here for me. Therefore I found the game quite boring and lacking of life.
What is all this fuss about Barça?
So what is all the fuss about this Barça team? During that match, I did not see Messi very active on the pitch so it was quite disappointing. I realised though that the pitch is the stage of a lot of unfair stuff going on: sneaky kicks, headbutts, pushes… I am surprised these men are still in one piece. Neymar got pushed around so many times during those 90 mins, I really am suprised he did not break. Then it hit me. Those guys are really good. I mean they are good team players as they pass the ball onto each other. But also they do this tiki taka thing where they make short passes to each other. The other team could not touch the ball at all. You have to watch it live if possible to understand the level of skills they have. I also saw Neymar Jr shoot a goal from a large distance and it was quite impressive. But I guess this is not news to soccer fans.
Well I have not much to say after that. Apart that my dad got his pic after all… with a real life cardboard version of Messi in the Camp Nou museum. LOL.
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/camp-nou
CAMP NOU
C. d’Aristides Maillol, 12, 08028 Barcelona