An evening with La Furia Roja

Spain vs. Colombia, February 10th, 2011. Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

I've always been one to enjoy football (soccer.) I even played when I was little, at the YMCA. My love for football started back in 2008, when I was here in Madrid. The Euro Cup was going on and Sol told me one evening that everyone watched the games in Plaza de Colon, in the center of the city. I went to one game, and the rest is history. That was the summer I fell in love with not only football, but the Spanish national team. I cringed in 2009 when we lost to USA (still can't believe it!) in the semis of the Confederations Cup. And last summer during the World Cup, I think I drove all of my friends, family, and those who follow me on twitter, to the point of insanity. For one month straight, all I could do, think, tweet, was about football. I even bribed all of my family with Spanish food on the day of the championship match. Looking back, it's amazing that I didn't suffer a heart attack in July, after the 1-0 win against Germany in the semis (a Euro Cup 08 final rematch) and the 1-0 WC final game against The Netherlands (a team who I can't hate, because their jerseys are my favorite color....)

Anyways, I have been dying to go to a football game here. The tickets are really expensive, even for the nose bleed section. Last night, the Spanish national team had a friendly match against Colombia, and guess who got to go?! ::raises hand:: ME!!!! Boy, was it worth the wait. The plan was to go and buy tickets at the gate and meet a friend from work. Turns out, my friend got me and my friend tickets because he is a coach for one of the youth teams of Athletico Madrid (the other La Liga club in the city). Our seats were in the 15th row. FIFTEENTH. I almost cried. We were so close to the field, it was unreal. I could actually make out the faces of David Villa, Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, etc. David Villa almost broke Raul's record of 44 international goals with the Spanish team, literally right in front of my eyes. His wide-open shot went just left of the goal. We barely won, 1-0. Silva scored with four minutes left. We played pretty crummy, but at least we pulled out a win.

The evening was beyond amazing - I still can't believe I was actually there!

The view from my seat....And I didn't zoom in at all. Just to give you an idea on how close to the field I really was....