As many football fans were aware, the world's reigning top club F.C. Barcelona paid a visit to California in a friendly match against the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena yesterday August 1. For me, the match was a win-win. Barcelona is probably my favorite European club and, as a LA resident and a perpetual champion of the underdog, I support the Galaxy. I had no dreams of the Galaxy pulling the upset, I just wanted to see some good football and get hammered. I had the good fortune of being able to score some tickets for this once-in-a-lifetime event. The event did not disappoint. Here is what went down yesterday.
Armed with four Amps, one pack of Turkish Silvers, and one bottle of Jager my roommate and I made the trek out down the 210 West to the most glorious of sporting venues. We posted up on the golf course behind the Rose Bowl and began the process of playing everyone's favorite drinking game: Kill the bottle of Jager in one hour. While playing this most excellent game, many passerbys looked on in envy of our Jager awesomeness. As my roommate and I are of the entreprenurial mindset, we soon saw an opportunity to make some extra scratch. We sold four shots out at $1 each to some friendly Mexicans. Eventually some white guys from Orange County showed up and wanted Jager. We saw an opportunity to graft and doubled our price. Great success. After these sales we decided we had given out enough and proceeded to finish off the bottle. We were riled up and ready for some football.
Once in the stadium, I discovered that beers were NINE
DOLLARS, which for a normal poor college student would be enough to dissuade any purchase of this overpriced Miller Lite. But the Jager inside of me convinced me that I should just say screw it and do it. On our way to our seats, we saw a sign for free seat upgrades which perked our interest. The guy behind the counter confirmed that for whatever reason, they were trading in General Admission for seats behind each of the corners. The guy saw my Galaxy headband and decided to hook us up. We got seats behind one of the corners on the Galaxy end next to one of the Galaxy supporter clubs: The L.A. Riot Squad. However, we were surrounded by Barca fans who were all crazy Mexicans.Once the game started there was an ongoing war between those who wanted to stand and those who wanted to sit. As a participant in many student sections I am totally OK with and support the idea of standing during a game. The Mexicans we were with were also totally down. The white upper middle class 40 somethings with their kids weren't so down. There was much yelling of "Sientate!" "It's a soccer game! Stand!" back and forth all game. It was hilarious. We were in the 14th row and could see many people up close, including Galaxy forward Landon Donovan, midfielder David Beckham, Barcelona forward Lionel Messi (who terrorized the Galaxy defense all night), midfielder Dani Alvez, and many other world class players.
As expected, Barcelona won the night with a final score of 2 - 1. But the score is not indicative of the quality football demonstrated by both clubs. The Galaxy defense was tenacious in shutting down time and time again Barcelona assaults. And Barcelona wasn't fucking around either. Only twice did the Galaxy defence lapse - resulting in the two goals given up. A lesser club would have given up four or more goals to pre-season Barcelona. Even when Barcelona subbed out practically their entire team after the break with another lineup of allstars, the Galaxy only gave up one goal in the second half. For a team that has either won or tied their last 5 MLS games - and throw in a 2 - 2 draw against AC Milan just for kicks - a 2 - 1 decision against the world's best club; I'll take it. All in all it was an incredible event. A sold out Rose Bowl, a world class stage, for only $25. Hooray football.
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