So I am sitting here the whole weekend in front of my laptop translating this
football magazine and there´s two articles I stumble on: One about
Madjer and the other one about
Borussia´s triumphant but unexpected win of the 1997 Champions League edition... Sometimes, when I translate stuff like that, it gives me goosebumps, especially when the articles talk about old legends, games of 10-15 years ago, Maradona,... those things. It reminds me of when I was a kid, when I really loved football, when I cared, maybe too much, but when it also was more fun and expectations were higher. And definitely, when hope was needed.... Probably because Barça always seemed to fail when it mattered most.
On a 7th of May, like today, but in 1986, in Seville, Barça chocked again. I was 6 years old and my team was playing the European Cup Final (the biggest title to win for a team if you follow European club football) against Steaua Bucarest, the underdog, by far, maybe too far... It would have been the first time that Barcelona would have won the trophy and everyone expected them to do so. Me, too. I mean, a Rumanian team, how were they supposed to beat us in Seville, on home ground almost... My mum wouldn´t let me watch the full game (I had to go to bloody school next morning) and I went to bed with a result of 0-0 but confident that we would win, because, weren´t we supposed to do so? That was what everyone was telling. Barça´s big date with history...
Next morning, when I woke up, my mum didn´t say much. I was excited, like those days when you wake up and something important is going to happen, ran into the kitchen, where my dad used to leave me a note with Barcelona´s results, for the games I couldn´t watch until the end... and saw a few lines I couldn´t believe, or I just didn´t want to believe "
Sorry, you´ve lost. barça didn´t manage to score even once in the penalty shootout". That was it, we had lost again and I was in disbelief. How could we not have scored even one penalty, what had happened?!? I wasn´t furiuos, like other times when we had been robbed, I just couldn´t believe it... I felt so helpless, there was nothing that could console me and much less having to go to school and go through all the verbal abuse of my school mates, 90% of them Real Madrid fans. I pretty much held my own with pride during 12 years but there were days, like this one, when I just wanted to go back to bed. I guess it was not meant to be Barcelona´s night, nor mine, but his:
Duckadam, the Steaua keeper who saved 4 penalties.
Luckily, time heals wounds, even in sports, and Barcelona finally ended up winning the trophy 6 years later in Wembley, London, in a heartbreaker decided by a late overtime free-kick from Ronald Koeman. And thanks God we didn´t go to penalties back then again, we probably would have lost, not only because of the preasure and because Sampdoria was a solid Italian team (and you don´t normally beat solid Italian squads in shootouts when you have the preasure of history on your neck, like Barça had), but because we had the worst penalty-saving keeper in the world: Zubizarreta.
Then, in Paris, 20 years after the somewhat tragic loss in Seville, I was in the Stadium when we overcame an early 1-0 deficit to beat Arsenal 2-1, thanks to Belletti´s late strike. Still, as I translate these articles and find those references to the past, I get a a bit emotional sometimes. Nowadays, yeah, I like watching my team win but I don´t follow them as closely anymore, finding myself going out, travelling or doing other stuff on Barça´s gamedays, something I never thought could happen when i was a kid.
I guess the game in Paris gave me that interior peace I needed and it made up for that night in Seville. If now only the national team would ever live up to its expectations, but that, I´m afraid, is a completely different story.
Madjer vs Bayern in the 1987 Final, an amazing goal... I still remember watching that one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cwsWThYjBE
... ten years later, Borussia making history, with an amazing goal that finnished of Juve. And yes, I actually liked Borussia, they were my team while Stephane Chapuisat (Swiss striker) was there and I still have sympathy for them these days, and it´s probably the only time I´ve supperted a German team in any competition or sport, when the outcome didn´t really affect one of my teams. Normally I always root against them, like in ski-jumping, for example, where I am for Finland... :P Anyway, great performance, great last goal and happy they won almost back 10 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0sl2zGrD5U Also this one is an amazing clip about the World Cup, watch the 2-3 last minutes, unless you are German... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzI4uX0DnXo
Labels: Sports
