Champions!

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I know that it is old news to most of you ardent fans, but Sevilla FC won the UEFA cup championship last night in Scotland! (For the handful of you who don't know, the UEFA Cup is a football (soccer in the U.S.) competition for European club teams. It is the second most important international competition after the UEFA Champions League. Clubs qualify for the UEFA Cup based on their performance in national leagues and national cup competitions.) This is the second year in a row that Sevilla has won the cup. Its opponent this year was another Spanish team, Espanyol of Barcelona, which in itself is unusual since England, France, Italy, Germany and other countries also qualify teams.

We opted to watch the game at home rather than join the 8,000 ardent fans watching on a big screen at a nearby auditorium or try to squeeze ourselves into a bar. It was a tremendous game: Sevilla was favored, and it scored early and first, but Espanyol scored an equalizer in the first half. Early in the second half Espanyol lost one of its players when he received his second yellow card. With a one man advantage, Sevilla dominated the game but was unable to push in a goal. The teams then went into overtime, and Sevilla's star, Kanoute (who is from Mali) scored a goal with one second remaining in the first half of overtime. The game should have been over then, but one of Espanyol's young Brazilian stars scored a beautiful goal 10 minutes later to tie it up again and send the game into penalty kicks. Sevilla's keeper, Palop, then became the star, blocking not one but two of Espanyol's kicks to win the game and the championship. It was a well-played and dramatic game; you can read more at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aBSerzZdtQNc&refer=germany)

After Sevilla won, the city erupted. Things had been very quiet during the game, but afterwards people poured into the streets to celebrate and make as much noise as possible. (Some of them may have been drinking alcohol, but I'm not sure about that.) About 5,000 fans gathered peacefully at the Puerto Jerez, a large plaza about a mile from our apartment, but we didn't join them as it was already after 11pm and god knows I need my beauy rest. Instead, Angie and I went up on the roof and watched the fireworks going off all over town. Very exciting.

While we have watched lots of football on TV, we have yet to see a game in person. Sevilla's success this year (they are currently battling Barcelona and Real Madrid for the lead in the Spanish league with only 6 games to go) means that tickets are very hard to come by. They are also surprisingly expensive. We may have to settle for going to a game involving the second team in Sevilla, Betis, which is also in the first division but is not doing so well. Or maybe we can take a road trip to one of the smaller towns nearby to watch a second or third division match. There is no shortage of football here! (In addition to the UEFA cup and its regular league schedule, Sevilla is also playing for the championship soon of the King's Cup, an all-Spanish tournament. It is the only team in Europe with the chance of winning three different titles this year.)

This weekend we are heading to the beach with our friends Maleni and John and their two children, and it sounds like we may have a visit the following weekend from Graeme and Sarah, who run the language school in Roquetas that we attended. (By the way, the school's website is http://www.comunicacionee.com/; if you tell Graeme and Sarah that you learned of their school from our blog, we get a substantial finder's fee!!!) After that, we wrap things up here in Sevilla; we'll spend some time in Barcelona, and then meet up with my sister Kathey and the other Taiclets in Venice to study Italian chocolate! Ciao!

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Comments

[Tom Zavoral]

Futbol!!!
Great entry... how exciting to have been in Sevilla when this happened... miss all of you and can't wait to catch up this Summer... love you and miss you... Uncle T

[Riley Espersen]

Hello to Ryan!
It sounds like you are having a great time in Spain! We miss you at recess playing wallball, basketball and football. Maybe you can teach the kids over there how to play wall ball. Have fun exploring and being with your family!