Visca El Barça!

My beloved FC Barcelona beat their detested rivals, Real Madrid, soundly and solidly this weekend 3-0 at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. This is one of football's most intense rivalries and if you want to gain an understanding of the international implications of football, I heartily recommend fellow Barça fan Franklin Foer's book,  How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization.

My only complaint about the book is the nearly exclusive focus on club teams. I think it would have been interesting to focus on some regional national rivalries like USA  v. Mexico, Argentina v. England or Brazil v. Argentina. Nevertheless, if you want to gain an understanding on the world's game and why the passions for it are so strong, I urge you to read the book.

Four years ago Mércia and I took a wonderful trip to Spain. Here I am at one of my favorite memories of the trip:

At the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. Yes, I was thrilled with the Gaudi architecture, the food, the Alhambra in Granada, the Cathedral in Sevilla, La Mezquita in Córdoba, the side trip to Morocco, but it is not easy to get into a Barça game on such short notice. I didn't even care that they lost!

Comments

[xavier]

Randy:
Aaa so you're a culer too eh? :) Dad almost had a heartattack when I misread the results of the game. He was estatic when he learnt that Barça convincingly beat Real.
Culers per sempre!

xavier

[akaky]

i still think soccer is a clever way to get europeans and others to run track and field events under the guise of a ball game, but that's just my opinion, you understand.