Fútbol

Granada FC (or in Spanish, Granada CF [Club de Fútbol]) is a pretty big deal in Granada.  Not Spain, but Granada.  People flock to the stadium every home game and inhabit the bars and then move to the game.  As anyone studying abroad in Spain, I am required to go see a fútbol match.  That's exactly where I went on Wednesday with my cousin and a couple of our friends.

We bought the tickets the day before, but it didn't matter because they were still selling tickets up until it the gates opened.  We climbed the stairs to the top tier and got a seat right on the edge overlooking the field.  Even though we were so far away, we could see everything crystal clear.  The field, almost glowing green, didn't look so far away.  And the stadium was packed, which I imagine is true for most games.  The interesting thing is that Granada is ranked 16th in its league.  A team like that in the states wouldn't have sold out games.  And this game wasn't very key to the league and it was still sold out.  We were playing Bilbao, a team from the North of Spain and they were seated 11th, so we were supposed to lose.

In the first ten seconds, we scored a goal.  The crowd roared!  Everyone was hugging and cheering and it reminded me of UMass Hockey games, except far fewer drunk people.  Then, a few minutes later, we received una tarjeta roja, or a red card, which expels one of our players and prevents us from replacing him.  Therefore, we have 10 players on the field against their 11 players.  This didn't matter because before the half, we scored again.  Everyone was cheering and we were trying to find out what they were saying.  Actually, they weren't saying words at all.  They were just yelling, "Laaah!"  That made it easier for us to follow along.

Unfortunately, Bilbao scored two goals in the last ten minutes of the game.  The game ended in a tie, which was good, but not as great as it could've been.  Imagine if we had kept all 11 players, though.  We would have clearly won.  Oh well, maybe next time.