It Smells Like... Team Spirit!

As a native New Englander, I know a little something about team spirit.  We are die hard Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics fans.  And if you dare enter into a bar anywhere in the Boston area claiming to be something else...well... I wouldn't recommend it.  New Englanders are passionate about their sports.  We rally for the hometeam like nothing I had ever seen.  That is, til I moved to Barcelona.

FC Barcelona (known as Barca) is our local "futbol" (that's soccer for those of you at home) team.  And the people here are passionate about Barca even more than us New Englanders are about our sports.  Don't think I'm right?  Come visit, I'll prove it to you.  Not only do I regularly see people walking up and down the streets with banners on game day, but when they win a game, you literally hear the screams thru out the neighborhood.

Now I remember when the Red Sox and Patriots won the World Series and Super Bowl respectively back in 2004 (the year Aidan was born which is why I remember it - don't ask me any other sports years!).  There was a huge amount of cheering and yelling for sure.  But could I hear it thruout my neighborhood?  Were people lighting off firecrackers in the streets and honking their horns?  No, they weren't. 

Last night, Barca played Real Madrid - Real Madrid is to Barca what the Yankees are to the Red Sox. The enemy! And every time they meet the match is called El Capital. Why, I have no idea and since this is a quick entry, I haven't got time to look it up. The season ends at the end of next month and there is still at least one or two more games to be played against Real Madrid, more than in most seasons for some odd reason. Anyways, I'll be honest, yes, I cheer for Barca...but do we watch the games? No, not really. However, you can't help but get caught up in the spirit. Last night as Josh and I lay in bed reading, you could hear the screams and shouts from thru out the neighborhood. We could tell when someone made a mistake from the booing and when they scored a goal from the cheers. We heard them scream Messi, Messi, Messi! He's our Tom Brady.

 

Lionel Messi - Picture from a web search

And at the end of the game, there was plenty of horn honking going on and firecrackers going off... I'm going to say that without even looking online at the score that they won.  My guess is it was even more crazy down in the center of the city where people were likely hanging out of their cars with banners and impromteu parades going on as well... I wouldn't be at all surprised!

So if you think you have team spirit you may want to reconsider how the people of Barcelona celebrate a victory and climb on board the Barca bandwagon!!

Julie