Well the Soapbox is back where it
belongs, sometimes, being about Football! Whilst the week in Barcelona will be
covered elsewhere, this edition is dedicated to two of my favourite events of
the week, both around Barcelona FC.
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| Like a kid in a candy store!! |
The Nou Camp Tour
On Thursday we got the metro out
to the famous home of Barcelona FC, The Nou Camp, or Camp Nou, depending on
your nationality. The tour is self guided with an audio guide and appropriately
named the Nou Camp Experience. I must say I wasn’t disappointed!
The first stage is a meander
through the Barcelona FC museum, covering everything across all sports
(Football, Basketball, roller hockey, Handball and Futsal) from the early
1900’s of the clubs inception all the way through to the current season. Whilst
there was way too much information to do it justice here a couple of standouts
were the 6 cups of 09/10, the information around the clubs resistance to all of
the Spanish dictatorships including the founding presidents murder by one of
them (Franco I think) and the amusement of the roller hockey trophies on
display alongside over 100 years of football cups. I mean really… Roller
Hockey…
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| The 6 cups! |
For those of you not football
people reading this, who incidentally won’t make it this far into this post
anyway, Barcelona were the first, and far as I’m aware the only club in the
professional world to have a ‘reverse’ sponsorship with Unicef where by they
donate 0.3% of their revenue each year, over 1.3 million EURs roughly and
display Unicef as their major sponsor! Whilst this may be irrelevant to many I
think it’s worth noting that with most of the major European clubs riddled with
debt it’s a sign of Barcelona’s support and financial stability that allows it
to carry out this act.
The other interesting side of the
clubs history is its support of all things Catalan. Cataluña is the north east
region of Spain which Barcelona is the unofficial ‘capital’, not entirely happy
with their incorporation into mainland Spain after the civil wars and WW2 they
attempt to maintain their own identity with their own language and flag (and a
deep seated resentment of the Spanish capital, Madrid.) Franco attempted to
strip the club of its Catalina ties in the 1930’s, changing the clubs name and
removing the Catalan flag from the clubs emblem. This was another reason for
the founding president’s murder by fascists around the same time, being not
only the president of the club but also a member of the left wing political
party of the time. Even today, the club is strongly associated with all things Catalan
including an ‘international’ played in the early 2000s between Cataluña and
Spain.
Then the most amazing thing
happened, all the players turned up and we got our photos with a few them, it
was amazing…
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| Katrina and I with Xavi |
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| Me and Carlos... you can call him Mr Puyol... |
Another personal favourite was
the Obama jersey and thank you letter from the White House. Barca had sent
Obama a personalised Jersey to celebrate his election and he had returned a
letter of thank you to the club which they have proudly on display. He notes
himself as an avid sports fan and thanks the club for their kind gift, he also
has a cool signature!
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| Barcelona's gift to Obama |
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| The thankyou from the man himself! |
Next stop was the ground itself.
Both from above and below, the ground is impressive, holding a reduced capacity
of 100,000 after the UEFA rules enforcing seating for all spectators, down from
the 110,000 original capacity. The seats splendid in blue and red with the
yellow writing of Barcelona FC on one side and ‘more than a club’ on the other.
The day we were there they had the heaters on one side of the ground and the
groundsman was busily mowing in the perpendicular cuts of grass across the
field, the only ground markings were the Barcelona FC emblem on halfway between
the two dugouts.
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| Mes Que Un Club - More than a club... |
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| From the halfway line... note no halfway line actually present... |
Unfortunately only the away
dressing rooms were open to the public, but whilst minimalist, would still be
the envy of most A-league clubs I would imagine! The chapel was open but not accessible,
yes a chapel, on the way out of the change rooms in the tunnel to the field.
Not sure what the bigman can do for you by the time you’re ready to walk out on
the field, but I suppose it makes sense for the highly religious footballers
among us!
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| Me doing my best South American/Spanish commentators GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! (field heaters in background) |
Last stop on the experience was
the multimedia section which whilst if you had all day to make your way through
the interactive displays or sit and watch the short films (including a highlights
reel of the 6 cups) would be amazing, but with an already bored wife we did a
quick brush through and into the best part of the day, the Barcelona MEGASTORE!
Like all big European clubs the
merchandise is endless, from G-strings for your partner (male or female) an no
I didn’t make Katrina buy one!, all the way to pencil cases, ash trays, shot
glasses, socks, shirts, dressing gowns, ponchos and on and on! I showed great
restraint and held my self to a Puyol away jersey, a very tasteful scarf and a
nice new Nike Golf Barcelona polo.
With my appetite wet, it was back
home to fill in the time until Saturday night when the real football display
would be on.
Barcelona FC vs. Zaragoza
Parting ways with Katrina (for
the first time this trip) two metros back to the Nou Camp early to make sure I
could find it and my seat! It had been pissing down rain all day but my
purchase of a poncho was as good as any insurance policy to ensure it wouldn’t
rain all night! The opponents were Zaragoza, one of Barca’s closest rivals
geographically but may as well be in Australia when comparing class!
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| The game... |
I will now digress into my only
negative experience in relation to the club. Arriving early as mentioned I went
with a hamburgessa (extremely similar to what us Australians call a hamburger)
and a beer. The Hamburgessa did not disappoint, however about halfway through
my beer I thought, this could be the
worst beer I’ve ever tasted… On closer inspection I realised they only sell
Estella 0.0% ‘beer’… non-alcoholic. Now before you all cry that I’m an
alcoholic or a Bogan or similar, I don’t care that they don’t sell beer, (much
like light beer at the cricket) I just care that they don’t advertise that that
is what they are selling! Ha ha, but this being the worst thing to happen all night
isn’t a bad night at all!
During the warm up, I couldn’t
help notice that Messi’s carefree style just looks like laziness at times, he
kind of just wandered around, clipped a few balls here and there. Even when the
team was sprinting through shuttles he just jogged around, never exerting
himself… Amazing that such seemingly little effort would result in such a
performance…
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| Xavi during warm up... |
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| Messi During warm up |
The game itself was a clinical
display opened by Pique heading the first goal in on 18 minutes from a Barca
corner. It was amazing to watch them move the ball around with so much time.
The thing that struck me the most was that they seemingly can do most of their
possession at walking pace, and only when about to launch an attack do they
pick up the tempo. This in contrast to the Roar who I’d watched earlier that
morning that really look like they’re at top speed for long parts of the game.
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| Pique, No. 3 heading in the first goal |
Messi who was already making and
creating impressive runs with Xavi and Fabregas in midfield then deservedly got
a second just before half time. His goal came from the trademark Barcelona
play, moving the ball back and forth across half way stretching the defence,
once a gap opened, a neat series of 1-2’s a calm finish from Messi. It is truly
amazing how few long balls this team plays, every goal kick is played short to
Puyol or Pique, most free kicks just tapped to a team mate and get the ball
moving again, and even very few long range shots. Most of the attacking plays
come from a simple wall 1-2 with the second ball in behind the defence.
Zaragoza’s goal keeper did exceptionally well to keep it at 2-0 going in to the
break.
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| Celebrating Messi's goal! |
The second half was to be more of
the same with Zaragoza rarely threatening and Barca controlling long parts of
the game. A third was inevitable although it was an unlikely goal to Puyol who
stayed forward after one of only a couple of free kicks which were whipped
directly into the box. Whilst Zaragoza dealt with the initial free kick the
ball fell to Fabregas who whipped in a ball to the back stick which was centred
for Puyol whose initial header was saved but who managed to prod home from the
ground in the resulting scrap.
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| Man love to start the 2nd half |
Barca then made two substitutes
which if I was an opposition player would’ve made me cry. Just when you think
they might lay off the pressure they bring on two no names… David Villa and
Andres Iniesta! Obviously being rested for the mid week Champions League
fixture against Milan Pep Guidiola needed to get them to stretch the legs out
and have a bit of fun. David Villa almost immediately put his mark on the game
with the 4th goal in the 74th minute. I’ll be honest, the
actual goal escapes me but it was no doubt after another characteristic period
of possession opening up the defence and Villa showing his natural ability to
slot home.
And with that the game was well
and truly over, although Barca still managed to created chance after chance and
never really let up. Again the Zaragoza keeper without a doubt their man of the
match with a series of one on one saves.
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| Messi weaving his magic, has just beaten two of those defenders! |
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| The happy fan! |
So, one off the bucket list, see
Barcelona play live! Whilst the crowd was probably ‘only’ 60 to 75,000 it is a
very impressive stadium and even 2/3rds full creates a special atmosphere. The European
trend to whistle instead of ‘boo’ the opposition is truly deafening, and the
cheers not only for goals but just general good play, including playing out
from the back, winning back possession and any time someone beats another
player is truly a great spectacle.
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| The team thanking me for coming... |
It was then a mad dash back to St
Jordi to meet Katrina at Roxette… but that’s covered elsewhere...
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