Madrid or Barcelona

There´s a major soccer rivalry here between Madrid Royal Footbal Club and Barcelona Football Club. Well, the rivalry exists mainly between the fans it seems. But as the names suggest, Madrid in the minds of the people is grander than Barcelona - it´s royal. I by accident bought a soccer ball in Madrid of the colors of Barcelona. I didn´t know that at the time. My Spanish friend told me to watch my back walking around flaunting such Barcelona-erism or whatever in Madrid public.

You get asked the question a lot here - Are you for Madrid or Barcelona? You can easily say one or the other, but it takes time to really come up with your own answer. To base your answer in performance alone is tough because in the end, althoug my Madrid roommate strongly disagrees, it´s tough to say who´s better. In some ways Madrid´s better - and, you guessed it, in some ways Barcelona´s better. Madrid has the best goal keeper around but Barcelona has the best passer and (a separate player) the player with the best footwork in the league. Madrid has one real bad sport which for me reflects poorly on the whole team. Sorry, I can´t help that. The people here say that the rivalry is based somewhat in politics too, which I shouldn´t comment on more than to say that Madrid represents for some one thing - maybe like ESTABLISHMENT - and Barcelona the opposite - INDEPENDENCE and CHANGE.

My feelings in the end - and my answer to the question - is based on the fact that I find myself looking forward to the few Barcelona games that I catch with the feeling that the players are my brothers and that, when they´re playing Madrid, they´re soldiers of light against a big, scary, dark monster. Therefore I say I´m for Barcelona.

This week I´m going to both Madrid and Barcelona to meet up with friends from the States. I don´t deserve to have this much fun.

Thanks for reading.