After a marathon day working in the office, Al and I headed over to the Bird’s Nest to watch some football. It was a “friendly” match between FC Barcelona and Beijing Guan (China club champs). We were entertained by the worlds best footballer, Lionel Messi aka La Pulga.
As soon as I heard Barcelona was in town earlier this week I jumped at the opportunity to attend. I absolutely love to watch high quality football. Last summer in Europe I had the opportunity to watch two Real Madrid matches. So much fun.
Barcelona won 3-0 tonight. Two of the goals came in the first 15 minutes. We thought for sure we’d be in for a high-scoring game. But for whatever reason, Barcelona cooled off until the ’89 with a pretty Ibrahimovic goal.
I was just a little bummed that Barca didn’t bring their “A” team. So many of their superstars were absent: Dani Alves, Pique, Bojan, Puyol, Xavi, David Villa, Iniesta. This Barca team is such a star-studded squad — many from the Spanish national team (World Cup Champions). It would have been a real treat to see them all play. I’m guessing they’re still on holiday.
But still…overall I had a wonderful experience tonight. I got to watch Messi (Yes, THE Messi), Ibrahimovic, Abidal and Milito. What a great way to end such a wonderful week. I’m sure i’ll be back soon enough to visit our team here in Beijing. We catch a flight back to SF tomorrow. It’s late and I wanna go to bed. Peace.
The Bird’s Nest
The pitch.
Barcelona jerseys in the subway. Yes, that’s a vuvuzuela. They have somehow caught on in China. It was annoying (yet fun) to hear them live. Most of the Chinese didn’t know how to properly use them though so the buzzing was off and on (unlike Johannesburg). :)
