I have been asked by Elizabeth to share my thoughts on one of the greatest sporting events I have ever witnessed. A little background is in order--during the holidays Erik and Emily asked me to go to Spain with them to visit Elizabeth and Madrid. During my visit there we toured many wonderful sites in that country. The museums, palaces, parks and churches were unbelievable. The beauty cannot be overstated as it is simply hard to believe how they built these buildings back in the day.
One of the most memorable experiences I had was attending a “big time” European soccer match. My dreams came true on Saturday, March 18. Erik was able to get tickets two rows from the field on the 50 yard line! We were so close to the players we could smell them😊 (I may have stretched the truth here.)
The Civitas stadium holds 68,000 fans and it was full by the time the game started at 9:00 pm. The match was between Atletico de Madrid and Valencia. The atmosphere was just unbelievable. At one end of the stadium was where 30-40 thousand fans were located. These are the hard core folks who wave giant flags, sing, chant and act crazy for their team. Another part of the stadium where the visitors were located was blocked off with high plastic barriers so these fans could not throw beer or “stuff” on the home team fans. What a deal!! The Velencia coach was right in front us and kept running back and forth into his covered bench checking in previous plays etc. Whatever he was doing didn’t help as they lost 3-0. Each time Madrid scored the place erupted. It was crazy and the best event ever!!! I feel blessed to be there with my family!
(This is Elizabeth--this is my dad's only picture contribution to this post. Musah's American. He had a very loud and enthusiatic cheering section with the Elsea row. Every time he moved Liam and I would say, "Look at that American touch/finesse/hustle/skill/speed/grit/determination/domination etc." My dad did a "can't spell "Musah" without "USA"" thing. But he was on the Valencia team, and we had to be subtle about cheering for them. Also Valencia had a bad game, they lost, so Musah was not in the mood to acknowledge us. We were two rows behind the Valencia bench so I think he definitely heard us a few times.)
(This is Elizabeth--my dad, Jan, and Liam saw Saúl Ñíguez leaving the stadium in his car after the game. My dad wants me to add that the car was a Hyundai minivan, "which seems fitting for Saúl. He sucks. He played for Chelsea for half of last year and he was horrible.")
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