last night barcelona's soccer team was playing in the semifinals of the champion's league tournament...a very big deal in europe. arel was at a friend's house watching the game. barak was on a work call and dorian and i were hanging out. i thought about watching part of it, but you have to have special paid channels, which we don't. so, i decided to follow the game casually online....i'd glance every now and then to see what was happening.
chelsea (british team, for non-futbol people out there) scored early. at half-time it was still 1-0. in the second half one of barcelona's players got a red card and was ejected from the game, meaning barcelona was playing with fewer men. i was trying to get dorian to sleep and the game was nearing the 90th minute...i figured it was the end of barca's run. and then i heard shouting all around me...upstairs, outside, horns, but on my computer it still said 1-0. by this point barak was done with his call, but he didn't hear the sudden uproar because he was brushing his teeth. i was confused....had they scored or not? and then barcelona's 0 started to flash in red on my screen and turned to a 1. the score was now 1-1 and the game was almost over. when the referee blew the final whistle, barcelona erupted again. i read this morning that approximately 100,000 people gathered on the ramblas to celebrate. even though it was a tie, barcelona will go on to the finals of tournament in rome at the end of may.
why am i writing this? i think because it was a moment of realization...all of barcelona (of course not ALL, but you know what i mean) was watching together and then celebrating together. it was cool to be sitting on my bed, looking out over the whole city and then hear this collective expression of joy.
right now i'm curious how arel feels (he spent the night at a friend's). his favorite team is still bayern munich and he's still mad that barcelona beat bayern in the quarterfinals of this tournament, but i'm hoping he's happy about...able to enjoy the celebration.
dorian was rooting for chelsea because it's closer to san francisco, where he wants to go NOW!
