Real Madrid

As you may known based on early blog posts, I love Spanish soccer. I might not know a ton about it, but I have been following it ever since I went to Spain last summer. On Sunday Real Madrid (my favorite team) played their final game of the season. Before the Real Madrid game on Sunday, the team had 95 points and Barcelona had 96. But before I go any further, let me back up and explain the point system. This is how it works: for every game a team wins, they receive 3 points, for every game that is a tie, both teams receive 1 point, and if they lose, they don’t receive any points. A perfect score would be 115 points, at the end of the season, Barcelona had 99 points. This is the highest a team has ever scored. At the end of the season, the points are added up and the team with the highest number of points wins the Spanish Championship. Unfortunately, Barcelona won their game, giving them 3 points and Real Madrid tied giving them only one point. Barcelona ended their season with 99 points and Real Madrid ended their season with 96 points.

I was really disappointed Real Madrid didn’t win, especially because they came so close. Real is still a very competitive team though, and they have won more championships than any other team in Spain, with Barcelona coming in second and Atletico Madrid coming in third. To truly understand how big of a loss this is, you must understand the Barcelona, Real rivalry. When these two teams play each other in Spain, it is like the Iowa, Iowa State game time 100. The people of Spain are very passionate about soccer, and let’s just say they take it very seriously.

Last summer when I was in Spain, I got a glimpse of just how seriously Spaniards take their soccer. When I was in Sevilla, a huge soccer protest was going on, because the Sevilla fans believed their team needed a new coach, as they had been just recently been demoted to Division 2. What happens every year after the points are added is that the top 4 Division 2 teams move up to Division 1 and the bottom 4 Division 2 teams move up to Division 1. The people of Sevilla were very angry about this, and a mob of protestors decked out in their Sevilla jerseys, paraded the city for hours.

Here is a link to the article on Barcelona's win.