UEFA Champions League Final in Madrid
If you know anything about Courtney and I, then you know both have a love for soccer that goes far beyond the average human. Plenty of life lessons were learned from playing or watching the beautiful game. Courtney, being a NCAA Division I soccer athlete, has a love for watching the plays develop almost feeling as if she is on the field when she is in the zone…
Meanwhile, my addiction calls for a potential therapy session.
You see, many kids growing up were getting bedtime stories of Cinderella, super heroes or other fairy tales – like Courtney.
I was getting bedtime stories of the glory days of soccer. Pele, Roberto Baggio, Hugo Sanchez, Paolo Maldini, Cobi Jones…you get it. My family essentially put my mindset to have soccer over everything.
Now, we respect all sports even though we may not have played them all – Courtney might have though. I’ll have her write a post about being the only girl on a guys ice hockey team sometime but the moral of the story is that sports is a universal language. It has no color. It has no race. It has no belief.
Now that you know how we feel about soccer, imagine going to the city of Madrid, where the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final is. You have no ticket to the match, but you know the magnitude of being called “Kings of Europe” and want to be within touching distance of this environment.
Liverpool vs. Tottenham.
Red vs. Navy.
Two English Premier League teams facing off in a Spanish city.
Close your eyes.
Imagine you are in the center of Puerta del Sol, Madrid. Everything around you is decorated in Champions League memorabilia. The beer is cheap, navy and red is everywhere, Champions League history is showcased and not surprising, you hear the English Language everywhere. Every corner you turn, you cannot help but grin to the tune of…
“Walk on, walk on. With hope in your heart…And you’ll never walk alone…”
You have no horse in the race. People are asking you all around you who you’re cheering for. The same answer every time…
Tonight, we’re cheering for football. We hope football wins tonight.
For those who do not know, Madrid has the most bars than any other city in the world. Yes, the ENTIRE world. Now, imagine yourself walking down the alleys of Puerta del Sol and noticing every single bar is at capacity (mainly filled with Liverpool fans). You are making your way bar to bar, talking with drunk football fans to see if there is any particular place to watch the match. Then all of a sudden, our ears picked up a sound…a sound that was progressively getting louder…
Liverpool! Liverpool! Aaaaah Liverpool! Liverpool! Aaaaaah!
We both looked at each other and smiled and essentially developed a “f**k it” mentality. Why not follow the fans who had been drinking since before they got on the plane to Madrid to the pub? After making friends and following the crowd, we ended up at an intersection with six packed bars in the center. While deciding where to go, a Liverpool fan noticed we were making a game plan and he said to us, “there is cold beer, air-conditioning, and football fans inside… come follow me!”
So we did…
What preceded to happen was the biggest eye opener we have ever been a part of. People from all race and color packed a bar to watch a football match. It didn’t matter if you cheered for one or another, if you were there to watch football, you were welcomed.
At times, we felt as if we were a part of a drunken melody. The fans never stopped singing and chanting the entire match. Every single play had dramatic attention. It made every play feel as if it was a major part of the match. After Liverpool was rewarded a penalty within the first two minutes and Salah converted, over 100 Liverpool fans started hugging each other, singing and pouring their drinks everywhere…people they have never met before prior to tonight. What followed was a nail biting experience for any fan. Shots hitting post, players missing chances and plenty of Tottenham fans experiencing “if only” moments.
However, in the end, it was Liverpool’s year. Winning 2-0, we got the full Liverpool effect.
Songs. Cheers. Tears. We saw it all.
When we left the bar, the streets were flooded. Fans were lighting up road flares and taking over Puerta del Sol. For us, we enjoyed soaking in every minute of the celebration in the streets. Knowing that Puerta del Sol is roughly 45 minutes away from Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, where the final was played, we felt as if we were at the match the entire time.
For us, it was about seeing how a city can rally together to cheer on red, navy or football. No matter who you are, what you stand for or what you are about…everyone was united. Even after the final whistle, Liverpool fans did not heckle Tottenham fans. We all saw art during the final and we were all in Madrid to witness it.
You see, it’s not about being at the actual match (although that is on our bucket list). It’s the total package. Being in a foreign city, with a melting pot of cultures that came together for one cause: football.
That my friends is what Pitch to Passport is all about.
