Diary of a Champion: Part II
10:00pm I´m satrting to think to myself "if we don´t score before the 60-65th minute we might be dead". I don´t know why I always come up with these ideas but I guess it´s an effect of time running out and not really being able to help it. And there goes Ljungberg on one of Arsenal´s counter-attacks and... damn, that was close!!! By the way, it´s pi$$ing it down right now, "awesome" weather for a Champions League Final, yep... When it´s about Barça and Finals I can only think about the "Where is the love, the love, the love, love, love..." song. :.(
10:05pm ...Henry on the run as Arsenal´s left wing on a counter-attack, once again, Puyol tackles but misses the French guy by about 2 miles, Oleguer to help out (which is not saying much, considering the way he´s been playing) doesn´t do any better than his teammate.. and Arsenal "only" forces a corner!!! Jeeeeeeeeeeesus, what the hell was that??? The guy next to me is looking depressed, I try to cheer him up but the effect is about as positive as being a 26-year old single and being offered the chance of dating an 85 year old grandma: -100! And all Arsenal supporters are f*ckingly excited about that corner, which fears the hell out of me!!! ... Barça clears with a header!! "Venga Barçaaaaaaaaa". Suffer-o-meter is on 8.5 out of 10 now, where 10 is passing away...
10:07pm 27th cross into the box by Oleguer, on Barça´s right side, and yet again the same result, NOTHING!!! Oh God, he´s worse than Bolo Zenden back in the Van Gaal era!! I´m desperate now!!! Can someone TAKE HIM OUT, pleaaaaaaseeeee. Barça´s looking better with Iniesta and Larsson who´s come in for the "typical 1700 Dutch painter look-a-like" Van Bommel, who, just by the way, SUX!!!
10:08pm Mr. Canary looks worn down... yikes.
10:09pm WHERE IN THIS WORLD IS DECO?!? He´s been looking like sh*t for about 2 months already!!! But still you want him out there on the pitch and you don´t know why... I´m confused here...
10:10pm Holly sh*t, Henry one on one on Valdés and he misses, HE MISSES!! Unbelieavble!!! He could easily have sealed the game here!!!! I think my heart stopped punding at some moment here... He never misses an easy shot like that, coming across from the left side. ... maybe a bit of "love" for Barça after all??? All this "2-0 situation that could have been but wsn´t" leads to us fans cheering and getting really behind Barça now!!! It´s now or never!! And I´m telling everyone that this was the key moment of the game!!!!! Oh wait, we´re still 1-0 down and 20 to go... But as we all know by now, "Hope´s a good thing", isn´t it?
10:12pm Ronaldinho is starting to make me wanna jump out of my seat and punch him!! Pass the damn ball, don´t try it all yourself!!!! Damn, he´s playing like crap, hideous performance!!! Come on man, you are supposed to be the best player in the World!!!
10:16pm ... and it happens: Larsson with an awesome pass to Eto´o and the Camerunese striker send it home!!!!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLL!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. All even!!! YES, YES, YES!!!! We´re there!! I knew it!!!! Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Barçaaaaaaa!!! Everyone just jumped out with an inmense sense of relief!!!! Eto´o is the man!!! Just awesome!!!
10:20pm ... Belletti on the right, ball into the box, he shoots and SCORES, SCORES, SCORES, SCORES, SCORES, SCORES, SCORES, SCOOOOORESSSSSSSSSSS, EVERYONE GOES BONKERS!!!!!!!!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLL!
We´re just jumping, shouting, high-fiving, hugging each other!!! You just can´t describe the moment!! My buddy in tears and we´re 10 mins. away from being the Champions!!!!!!
10:33pm And the game is up, we won, we won, WE WON!!! Words missing here, we won, we are the champs and no one will be able to take away this moment from us!!!! I can´t believe it!!! "Campeones, campeones, oe, oe, oe" The atmosphere is indescribable!!!
10:35-11:15pm Ongoing celebrations. Belletti is the man of the night!!! Every 3 mins he comes back towards the stands and we cheer, we cheer, we almost cheer him up into the Barça Pantheon!!!
... from here on the night is all about celebrating!! We meet Inma, Dani, Cheso and their boss in a Spanish bar to comment on the game and have a few drinks. Not that Cheso is pi$$ed or anything, hahaha. He tries to hide his dissapointment but can´t really... Dani meanwhile is all excited about Larsson and pi$$ed because "Puyol raising the cup will be the last image to be seen on the video before every Champions League game next season". Yep, and that´s so cool!!! :)
Then we decide to go to a Club called Queen or something similar in Champs Elysées. The place is packed!!! Ideal venue for celebrating, hehe... It´s awesome!!! For a Wednesday, the party mood is incredible. And whenever I take out my Barça flag people start cheering and French Barça "supporters" come out from everywhere... Then there´s the moment someone notices the presence of a Ronaldinha in a Barça shirt in the club, and everyone, even Cheso&Dani start the "Campeones, campeones..." chant! She even comes by with her friend to join the celebration but that´s about it... :D Probably, the "having a girlfriend effect", cause everyone has one, except for me... Now that I think of it, I´m about the only one left single of my group of friends, hmmmm, even the most unlikely character is hooked up... Whatever, being single is cool!!!
Then we get to know this French young lady, Raphaëlle. She comes by spontanously and joins our celebration, even puts on the Barça flag and performs some dances, hehehe. Aweeeesomeee!!! She turns out to be a very cool chick, besides speaking English with a NON-FRENCH accent, which trumps about every other crazy moment of the day!!! Incroyable!
Apart from that, Sanyu´s putting on a show his own way: Jumping up and down to the vibes of music with anti-Barça chants! Cheso vom Alpli is a pissed Real Madrid fan trying to forget what just happened, Inma (a Barça supporter by the way, which automatically earns her 100 points in her score ranking) turns out to be the surprise contributor of the night, keeping pace with everyone else, Dani is busy talking to "Rafaela" and the Canary... well, he´s on another level since St. Denis, experiencing an ecstatic state of Nirvana or something like that ... As for myself, I´m just there, partying, having fun and just seizing the moment and getting carried away...
Finally, Dani and I leave the club at about 5:15, when about everyone else is gone already, with the exception of their boss and the Parisienne girl... From there we go to the apartment, I take a shower and make my way to Charles de Gaulle. The poeple working at the Lufthansa desks are all about quickness, it takes aaaaaages for just 1 passenger to do the check-in!!! I´m going mental now... Fortunately I´m allowed to cut the line, as my plane is about to depart... I arrive at the office in Staines, via Frankfurt, after what seems to be 100 hours later!!! And surprise, surprise, the Spanish boss has come to visit us and she invites me for lunch to talk about some things... Perfect timing, I just wanna go to bed!!!!!!! But hey, at least WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!
Quote of the day (Thursday) would be when my mum asked about the trip and I told her it had been "...the best day in my life".
She: "... what? I can´t believe you are saying that!!! Better then being with a girl???"
Me: "Mmmmmh, yep, better, it was awesome, plus there were nice chicks in the Club as well during the celebration, soooo..."
Go figure!!!
Labels: The Ramblings
