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« St. Patrick's Day | Main | Clearing the Air in Scotland » March 25, 2006Soccer in ZaragozaThere are basically just two Spanish soccer teams that everyone can name: F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. I was lucky enough to go see my hometown team (Real Zaragoza) play against Real Madrid. Coming into this game Real Madrid had been struggling. They fired their coach a little while back and just recently their president resigned. However their team is filled with stars (David Beckham, Ronaldo, Robinho, Raul and Roberto Carlos) and is still in second place in the Spanish League behind only FC Barcelona. Real Zaragoza on the other hand is not as good of a team. They are in 10th place (out of 20) in the Spanish League, and have no immediately recognizable names to the casual fan. Yet what they have showed this year is heart. They have made it to the final of one of the biggest Spanish tournaments La Copa del Rey (The King's Cup). Along the way Real Zaragoza beat both Barcelona and Real Madrid in impressive fashion. The tournament is set up such that each team plays each other twice (once at each home stadium) and the team that scores the most goals combined advances to the next round. If they tie there are a series of complicated tiebreakers using the amount of yellow and red cards each team received. The first obstacle for Zaragoza was a Barcelona team that was on a New England Patriot like win streak having won 18 in a row. All that Zaragoza did, after not scoring once 5 days earlier against Atlético, was put up 4 against the best team in Spain on the way to winning 4-2. They finished off Barcelona six days later by only losing 2-1 and thus winning by an overall goal total of 5-3. However, they were not done yet. Up next was the big bad Real Madrid team, whose two star players Ronaldo and Beckham made more money than the entire Zaragoza team. In front of the home crowd little known Diego Milito and Ewerthon scored 4 and 2 goals respectively as Real Zaragoza trounced Real Madrid 6-1. All that Zaragoza had to do was not lose by more than 5 goals in Madrid and they would be off to the finals. Zaragoza took care of business by losing 4-0 a week later to advance to the final which will be played April 12th in Madrid. Madrid returned this past Wednesday to Zaragoza, the site of their 6-1 embarrassment with revenge on their mind. It was a terrific game. Both teams could not get any offense going in the first half with each team only getting 2 good chances to score and converting neither of them. However about 5 minutes into the second half Zaragoza struck. Argentinean and Real Madrid nightmare Diego Milito scored on a header making the score one-nil as it is said. The score stayed that way for the rest of regulation time as Zaragoza fell back and played a strong defense. However in the stoppage time Ronaldo broke the hearts on Zaragoza fans, taking advantage of a muffed save by the Zaragoza goalkeeper and kicking in the loose ball to tie and the game. The game ended shortly after in a tie (with each team getting point in the standings), but it was not the result Zaragoza had hoped for as they played well enough to win the game.
Posted by Jesse Mills CommentsHey! wad up. yo, y didnt u tell me that u were going to soccer games. Im gunna send u back if u forget to get me a fake jersey from a team there, ok? Hehe. The games look amazing, are the crowds super loud? I WANT TO COME! o well, from the other pictures, the city kind of looks like it does in rhode island, is it true? Posted by: Margo at March 26, 2006 10:38 AM Very cool opportunity Posted by: Brian Hodge at March 26, 2006 03:37 PM Hey margo. Well I am looking for a jersey for you, but i havent found one yet. The crowd wasn't that loud, it's interesting though cause instead of booing they wistle really loud and annoying. The city is kinda like rhode island, except without a whole any grass and it's a little bigger than providence. enjoy Posted by: Jesse Mills at March 27, 2006 04:29 PM Hi Jesse Mills, I am Natalie from Hong Kong. Posted by: Natalie at April 9, 2006 02:38 AM Hey Natalie, I'll be happy to tell you some more about Zaz. I am actually on vacation right now so I don't have a whole lot of time, but when I get back I'll add you to my MSN and anwser all your questions. Good luck with your research. Posted by: Jesse Mills at April 14, 2006 05:45 AM Hi! I don´t know if you speak spanish but i think so, buecause if you live in Zaragoza. Te hablo en español que mi ingles es mejorable. Soy del Zaragoza como tu, socio también y me enorgullezco de ello y de las grandes goleadas a los grandes de España. Asi con goleadas asi y comentarios como el tuyo nos conoceran mas por paises anglosajones aunque en Londres nos recuerdan todavia cuando en 1995 les ganamos la recopa al Arsenal con gol de Nayim en el ultimo minuto desde 50 metros. Saludos tio! Posted by: Andres Perez at April 26, 2006 10:13 AM Muchas gracias. I'm just gonna translate his comment briefly starting from the first stuff written in Spanish. I'll speak in Spanish becuase my English could improve.
Posted by: Jesse Mills at April 26, 2006 12:45 PM Post a comment |
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