SOCCER: FC Barcelona 4 - NY Red Bulls 1

FC Barcelona vs. NY Red Bulls, Giants Stadium, NJ August 12, 2006

So I went to a soccer match last night. A friend was still suffering from World Cup fever (Viva! Italia!) and bought some tickets. So off to Giants Stadium in the swamplands of NJ to watch two of the biggest soccer stars in the world, Ronaldinho and Messi dismantle an outclassed NY Red Bulls team. After loads of traffic and paying $15 to park we made it into the sold out venue.

Now, I'm no soccer fan. I watched some of the World Cup but never an entire match. This was the second live soccer match I have seen since I went to a NY/NJ Cosmos game, also at Giants Stadium, in the late seventies. This was a fun night. The crowd would go crazy every time Ronaldinho touched the ball and then in the second half chants of "Messi! Messi!" rang throughout the stadium. Giants Stadium was sold out and I imagine that this was the largest crowd the Red Bulls ever played in front of. There was a very animated Hispanic guy next to me who was fun as he was jumping up and down and hooting and hollering in Spanish the entire time. The wave was in full force throughout the night and, of course, chants of “Olay, Olay, Olay” could be heard all match long.

Although a neophyte about soccer, here are my observations about the match. Barcelona seemed to be toying with the Red Bulls during the first half. Lots of fancy footwork eliciting oohs and ahhs from the fans and the players, especially Ronaldinho, seemed to be having fun. The level wasn't like an All-Star game, this was still a competition after all, but the intensity felt like an exhibition. Ronaldinho scored a goal on a penalty kick and at the end of the first half the Red Bulls attacked and tied it up. The second half was a different story as Barcelona attacked relentlessly and the Red Bulls couldn't mount any offense at all. Overall, Barcelona severely outclassed the Red Bulls. Final score 4-1. Ronaldinho had 2 goals, Messi had 1 with 2 assists. So it was a good game to watch as the big names lived up to expectations. Through it all I couldn't tell if the crowd was pro-Red Bulls or pro-Barcelona or just pro-Ronaldinho and pro-Messi. I would estimate that at least a 1/3 of the crowd was wearing Barcelona jerseys.

Another observation is that this game was not nearly as rough and tumble as I saw during the World Cup. Perhaps, it was because it was an exhibition or is European League play just different than World Cup play and MLS play even more different than European League play? I enjoyed it though, which is something I couldn't imagine a few years ago. I'm not about to begin following soccer like I do baseball but I now know that I can enjoy the game.