Not quite the NBA.....futbol anyone??

I have always failed to understand the Souths obsession with Nascar racing, middle America's football fanatics or East coast crazed hockey fans....that is until I moved to Spain and experienced die hard futbol fans. Coming from Seattle, a fairly large city with plenty to do, I never understood how some people could be so involved and/interested in the outcome of a game in which they had no connection. It has always bothered me when people say "we won or we lost." No. You didn't win or lose, in fact, you did nothing, you didn't spend countless hours training for the game, attend six am practices, sweat out blood and tears or endure long days with a coach who made the devil seem nice. The team you support might have won or lost but "we" implies you had something to do with the outcome and simply put, you had nothing to do with the result of the game. Now that I´m living in Huelva, population 10, with all of nothing to do, I understand how people develop an attachment for their sports team. When there is nothing going on that means that anything going on is something going on. I´m at the point where going to exhibits on the digestive system of an Earthworm seem interesting. For crying out loud I have already read over 15 books...more than I read in 4 years of college.

Luckily for us Huelva does have a basketball and soccer team which we can support and go to their games. We met the basketball team out one night only due to the fact that you can´t miss them. Given the average height of Spanish men is 5'5'', 5'6'' if there hair is jelled, anyone above 6 foot much less 6´7´´ stands out in a bar...kinda like a blonde american in huelva. We were excited to be able to watch some sports so we are now regulars at their games on Friday nights. In fact, Ngoc is their number one fan and most definitely the loudest. She has already established herself in the crowd and amongst the other regulars...while she might not tower over other fans while standing and screaming at the ref...her voice most definitley carries throughout the stadium. Thank goodness the refs don't understad English because we would most defnitely not be allowed back after Ngoc gives the ref a piece of her mind. The only person crazier than Ngoc at the game is the coach. I've experience some intense coaches in my day but no one like this guy. He isn't afraid to scream, get in your face, or throw temper tantrums. However, my all time favorite move is his the leath release of the clipboard in the direction of the bench for some innocent sub sitting aimlessy to take in the head.Only slightly dangerous.

The last couple of futbol games we have gone to we sat in the front row and heckled the other teams subs during their warms up. Well, let me rephrase that, Ngoc heckled the subs, and I admired the hotties running up and down the sideline yelling our address so they could stop by after the game.....must not have spoken English, or maybe my directions weren't clear, what a shame because they are some of the best looking people in Huelva. The highlight of the game is admiring the futbol players themselves, obviously. I do miss American football and Husky football games. While the futbol stadium here doesn't have the capacity to hold nearly as many people as Husky stadium....their is no comparsion in terms of level of craziness/dedication among fans. People live for futbol here. You cannot walk past a bar on the weekend and not see a room full of men yelling at TV (because the players can really hear you). At the games to say people "go nuts" is an understatement, you have to go to a game to appreciate the atmosphere, it's something else. I'm looking forward to many more Sunday afternoons admiring Huelva's finest selection of men, I mean, cheering on Recre!

Besos
Ally