FCB: Futbol Club Barcelona.  Everyone
was festooned with FCB wear.  Any other
fans must have been under cover!  FCB is
the dominant team by far in European futbol.
Through our concierge, we bought the equivalent
of someone’s “season tickets” for the night.  An
odd process, we were given photo IDs of the
buyers, which we had to show to get in and return
at the end of the night.  Bizarre.  They look just
like us, don’t you think?
Team star Messi #10 was recruited to Spain from
Argentina at age 11.  He’s already surpassed Pele
for goals in one season, and is on pace to break
 Pele’s lifetime record for goals, and he’s only 24!  
On the short side for a futbol player, he looks like
 Tom Cruise.  He makes more $$ than David 
Beckham.
Fans broke out in spontaneous songs and claps
during the match with no prompting.  There was
no loudspeaker announcing, either.  The first
part of the match was exactly 45 minutes,
followed by a 15 minute intermission and another
45 minutes.  It was intense! 
Messi in the process of scoring an expert
penalty kick.  He hooked it over the heads of all
those blue and white guys, and into the net.
Futbol is ALL about the penalties. The final
score was 4-0, with Messi scoring all 4 goals,
3 of which were penalty kicks.
No marching band, no cheerleaders.  And most
surprising of all, no beer.  This stadium holds
 100,000 people, and alcohol is completely
 forbidden.  The only “beer” they serve is 0%
alcohol.  It’s called Damm!

             

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