Yesterday was quite possibly one of the most exciting days of my summer. You'd think that with my love for the beautiful game that is soccer that I would have actually done this more, but I have to confess: I've only ever been to two live soccer games in my life. I suppose there are reasons for that - my mom not being very comfortable with me attending soccer games when I was still in Vienna (we moved to the US when I was 16) and soccer not being a very popular, well-advertised sport here in the US/Philly; but at the end of the day, two games are simply not enough :). And that's why yesterday was so exciting, because yesterday, I saw a soccer game live. And not just live anywhere, but live in a completely sold-out Giants stadium. And not just any soccer game, but a game between the Red Bull New York team and none other than this past season's Spanish champion, winner of the Champions League, and thus the best soccer team in soccer-Europe; the team of Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o, Messi and many other stars of the soccer world; yes, the opponent was none other than FC Barcelona.

Actually, the evening could not have started any worse than it did. Mike and I had spent the better part of the day hanging around the streets of Lower Manhattan, tied to our phones trying to coordinate with other people for dinner plans as well as getting an additional ticket for a friend who decided that very same day that she wanted to go. The ticket thing didn't work out, and dinner (with Miguel, who went to the game as well, and Payal, the person who we had earlier tried to get another ticket for), while certainly nice, went a good half hour past the time I had had intended it to go. But the worst was yet to come - in the form of a ridiculous traffic jam on the NJ turnpike between exits 14 and 16W. That short section, a mere 7 or so miles long, took us an unbelieable 1 1/2 hours to cover...when we finally arrived at the stadium, we had missed the first half, intermission, and the first 15 or so minutes of the second half because of that jam. Luckily, while we were stuck in the traffic jam, we found a radio station that was covering the game live - in Spanish, but that's the beauty of having a multicultural circle of friends, because Miguel, having grown up in Brazil, understood enough of it to keep us updated about the game's progress. Though, I think not much Spanish education is required to understand what is going on when one hears the reporter yelling "Gooooooooooool!" into the microphone.

But once we got to the stadium, all the frustration and anger of being stuck in traffic jam vanished instantly and gave way to sheer anticipation. We jogged from the parking lot to the stadium (I would have sprinted, but Mike with his sickness wasn't quite up to that), up the escalator to the upper level, and once there, went through the first gate into the arena we could find. I walked through - and was struck with amazement and awe by what my eyes were seeing. Crammed into the ranks of the stadium was a crowd almost 80.000 strong, cheering, yelling, applauding, singing, waving flags, creating an absolutely electrifying atmosphere. And then, looking down onto the field - oh, what a gorgeous field it was! - my eyes latched onto a player of the team with the orange jerseys...the long hair, the unmistakable stride - Ronaldinho! And how do they say? The rest is history...

Pictures are [here]!