Futbol, Futbol, Y Mas Futbol!...and a bicycle race.

 It has been a month of futbol. That is soccer for those of you in the US. We are not watching the NFL here in Spain. 

Spain takes the Cup

As previously mentioned in this blog, the Women's World cup has been happening since the middle of July. We watched the USA Women's team get knocked out in their first game of the knockout rounds. But our current country of residence was still in the mix. Yesterday the Spanish women's national team won the women's world cup. It was an intense game against the English women's national team and Spain came out victorious.

Watching on television the following night gave us a sense of the pride in the team. The team was driven in a double decker bus from the airport to to the central plaza of Madrid. Fans lined the streets the whole way and more than 20,000 fans awaited in the plaza to celebrate the team's historic win. It was only their 3rd time in the world cup.

I wish the story ended here but it does not. Unfortunately it takes a turn in the realm of sexual harassment and unwanted advances. Even before the World cup started. The Spanish National Women's team demanded that the head coach step down due to inappropriate behavior. The also called for equal treatment to the men's national team from the Spanish Soccer federation. The federation said no and only 2 of the players that were originally selected agreed to return. Yet they prevailed on the field.

Then during the awards ceremony, the head of the Spanish Soccer Federation forcibly kissed one of the players on the mouth. In the past two weeks there have been calls for him to resign which he refuses to do. The entire coaching staff for the team has...except the head coach. He has been suspended by FIFA, the national sporting agency has pressed charges against him along with the players union. The entire team along with several of the men's players are refusing to be called up for any future games until changes have been made in the federation.

There have been calls for him to go to jail but I think most of the people protesting just want him to step down and allow for change in the organization. There have also been public protest across the nation in support of the players and the rights of women in the workplace. It is sad to see the success of the women's team marred by such an event but unfortunately they were not alone in this struggle of equality in sports on the world stage.

Real Zaragoza is on a Run

We attended our first Real Zaragoza game on Aug 18. The stadium seats about 20,000 and it was packed. We learned from our seat neighbor that the seats we were in belonged to season ticket holders who were on vacation and had allowed their seats to be used while they were out of town. We had watched the first game of the season on TV the week before and were familiar with some of the players, Zaragoza plays in the 2nd division of La Liga having been knocked out of the top lever 9 or 10 years ago. They finished 14 out of 19 last year. The game we attended was against a team that was relegated from the top tier at the end of last season.

Everyone was engaged with the game. The crowd was like a living organism that groaned and gasped in unison with every chance on goal and poor pass. We only saw 1 area to buy food in the stadium, granted we did no walk around the entire concourse. But at the half the rustle of foil and paper filled the air as everyone, it seemed had brought their dinner to the stadium. I saw lots of ham and egg sandwiches. We will have to do this another time. Then as soon as the half was over it was right back to it for both the players and the crowd,

W took a video of the crowd at one point cheering. We loved how the supporter's group jumps in unison while chanting and singing. During a VAR (video assisted ref) check for a PK for the other team, the whistling was deafening. One thing that I was struck by was the fact that the fans would yell "yellow card" for a foul not a spanish version just yellow card.

Not in a bar on Sunday at 6am

So one of the perks of living in Spain is that we can watch Champion's League games from the comfort of our couch at normal hours. In Louisville we had to go to a bar early in the morning, frequently on Sundays to see the games. Not any more!

Tour de España

The Tour de España will pass through Zaragoza near where we live. So we will get to see a section of one of the major European bike races in person. It is not as big as the Tour du France but cool all the same. It will pass through here on September 9th. I will make sure to take some pictures and write a post about it then.