Europa League: Levski Sofia at Villareal

For the second time in a week, I attended a soccer match at Villareal. Last Sunday was for a La Liga match. Last night was for Villareal’s opening match in the Europa League versus Levski Sofia.

Parking at Villareal
With the Ultimate Sports Wife with me and torrential rains falling, I dropped off Nicole at the box office before I parked on the street. As was the case Sunday, I parked a few blocks from the stadium.

Obtaining Tickets
Once again, I bought tickets in the visitors section for the match – 30 euros versus 40 euros in the Villareal section. Since it was raining, I did not want to buy tickets from a season ticket holder and risk sitting under the open skies. Also I figured if Mallorca’s fans did not travel on a Sunday, then Levski Sofia’s fans would not travel on a Thursday even for a Europa League match. My assumption was correct. However, there were more away fans at this match than Sunday’s match.

Pre Game Bar
Before the game, we made our way around to the visitor’s entrance and stopped in at Bar El Submarino De La Bruja – directly next to the visitor’s entrance. The rain stopped when we needed to enter the stadium.

Estadio El Madrigal
Estadio El Madrigal is nothing special – especially the visitors section. They have one concession stand to buy drinks and snacks (remember no alcoholic beverages sold in stadiums in Spain). The stadium is smaller than the Mestalla in Spain which is probably why their lowest ticket price is higher.

The Game
Once again it rained for most of the match but the players could pass the ball across the field without it stopping immediately. Villareal won their opening match of the Europa League 1-0. Sofia fans seemed happy for a 0-0 draw but Nilmar scored in the 72nd minute.

Spanish La Liga: Mallorca at Villareal

After taking a weekend off for World Cup qualifying matches, Spain’s first division was back in action this weekend. The closest match to where we are staying was in Villareal last night – a 2.5 hour drive from Benimassot.

Parking in Villareal
As with the other Spanish soccer matches I have attended, cars appeared to park anywhere around the stadium. However, this time there was not enough room on the street for cars to double park or enough room on the sidewalk for cars to park there. I parked on the street a few blocks from the stadium.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived at Estadio el Madrigal about an hour before kickoff. There was nobody selling their extra tickets at that time, so I bought the cheapest ticket from the ticket office – 25 euros for a seat in the visitors section. The next price point was 50 euros which I thought was way too expensive.

My other option was to wait for a second ticket holder who had a season ticket holder card (similar to a credit card that allows the season ticket holder into all matches for the team) and buy their “extra” ticket. However, with this strategy you would need to enter the stadium with the season ticket holder, since there technically is no ticket, rather than enter the stadium on your own time.

Pre Game Dining
The area around Estadio el Madrigal is nothing special. There are a few bars visible from the stadium to buy a drink and some food. However, I found a better area than a smoked filled bar for pre-game dining – an open air area that has about 10 stands serving food and drinks. It appeared to have a better atmosphere.

Visitors Section
The “visiting” section (for those who are not familiar with European stadiums) is the section where the visiting team’s fans are allowed to sit. Visiting team’s fans buy tickets through their team and then are banned to one section of the opposing team’s stadium. The Europeans separate the home team fans and the visiting fans in order to avoid any conflicts that might occur if they were to sit together. It has its positives and negatives.

Yesterday, since the visiting team was Mallorca there were no visiting fans in the section – although there were enough police officers. During the first half of the game there were about 35-40 people sitting in the visitors section – almost a one to one ratio to the number of police in the section. It appeared everyone sitting in the section was a tourist that did not want to pay at least 50 euros to sit in the other sections.

The Weather
The best part of the visitor’s section at Villareal is that it is completely enclosed – meaning it has a roof and a fence around the entire area. The other parts of the stadium are not enclosed and a roof only covers part of each seating area.

At the start of the first half it was partly cloudy. However, as the half progressed you could hear thunder and see flashes of lightning approaching the stadium. This is where buying a ticket in the visitors section at Villareal had its perks.

By the end of the first half it was raining hard and thunder and lightning were hovering around the stadium. If this was an NFL game, I believe they would have delayed the game due to lightning. However, this was a La Liga match and play continued as scheduled.

Halftime is where the real excitement began – torrential down pours. It rained so hard that even though I was sitting 10 rows from the front of the section, it was still raining on me. I moved back about 10 rows to an area that was dry – technically indoors! Of course, I had left my jacket and umbrella in the car since when I arrived; it was only partly cloudy and warm.

Minutes before the second half began; the public address announcer stated that all fans could sit in the visitors section for the second half since it appeared there was no end in sight to the rain. Our peaceful section of 35-40 people now became a packed and rabid section of Villareal fans. I do not believe there was an empty seat in the area as fans were also standing everywhere. Of course, the torrential rains stopped just before the second half began, but the rains still came throughout the second half.

After the halftime rains, the pitch essentially became a puddle for the second half. Every time a player would take a step, a splash of water would appear from the field. Players who tried to pass the ball along the grass would gesture in frustration as the ball would stop about 3 feet from where they had tried to pass. I wondered if the referee would do anything but the game continued without delay.

The Game
Even though the pitch was completely water logged during the second half both teams managed to score. Villareal’s Giuseppe Rossi scored in the 53rd minute after Mallorca goalkeeper Dudu Aouate slipped (because of the puddles) in the penalty box leaving an open goal.

Mallorca’s Borja Valero equalized in the 74th minute with a free-kick 25 yards out. Villareal and Mallorca tied 1-1.

Spanish La Liga: Sevilla at Valencia

The Ultimate Sports Wife and I decided to spend the afternoon touring Valencia since we had decided to watch Valencia square off against Sevilla at 7 pm on La Liga’s opening weekend.

Obtaining Tickets
I had already bought two tickets to Sunday’s match on Thursday night so we would not have to deal with buying tickets on Sunday evening. We may have been able to beat the 20 euros ticket price at the window but taking our time to get to Estadio Mestalla was worth the peace of mind for not much extra money.

Parking Part 1
Since it was a Sunday and we wanted to tour Valencia’s City Centre, I decided to park on a street in between the City Centre and the stadium. We found a nice area where other cars were parked and appeared to be free. It was (however, read parking parts 2 & 3).

Valencia City Centre
We started walking around Valencia at 3 pm. Something to note about Valencia during August and on a Sunday is that everything is closed. There was not one store open between where we parked and Valencia’s main Cathedral. Of course this was to the Ultimate Sports Wife’s dismay.

However, as we approached the main tourist area by the Plaza de la Virgen where the Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados (which was closed) and the Cathedral are located, the restaurants and stores were opened. Phew! Of course, the only tourist attraction open in the area was the Cathedral but after seeing many Cathedrals in Europe for free we chose not to pay the 4 euros to see this one. Even the Mercado Central, one of the largest markets in Europe, was closed until September 2.

Pre Game Dining
I was concerned that the Ultimate Sports Wife would not like the restaurants (also known as bars) around the stadium. So rather than risk eating by the stadium, we ate at Cerveseria Manyans. The restaurant was not located in the main tourist area by the Cathedral but rather on a side street a few blocks south of the Plaza de la Reina. We ate early for Spaniards at 5 pm, but since we were hungry and had a long drive back after the game, the timing made perfect sense for us.

Parking Part 2
With our tickets already in hand, we decided to drop off some items in our car and be sure we had not received a parking ticket, or even worse towed. We did not receive a ticket, but to our surprise, we had a car parked perpendicular right behind us! Since we did not need to move the car at the time, we figured we would go to the match and hope the car was moved by the time we got back – although a man was ready to move the car for us if we needed to leave at that time.

As we approached the stadium, what I had not realized when I attended the match on Thursday night was that there are no parking regulations during a Valencia football match. Cars were parked bumper to bumper on the sidewalk, on the street and a second row on the street – blocking in all of the cars that had parked “legally” on the street. So much for worrying about whether we had received a parking ticket.

The Match
With the pitch on Sunday evening just as bad as it had been on Thursday evening, Valencia scored two goals in the second half to defeat Sevilla 2-0. Sevilla was reduced to 10 men during stoppage time of the first half as Fredi Kanoute was shown the red card (after receiving one yellow card in the 22nd minute and one yellow in stoppage time). Valencia immediately took advantage of their advantage by scoring in the second minute of the second half. Pablo Hernandez ensured Valencia won by scoring the second and decisive goal in the 79th minute.

Parking Part 3
Just in case you were wondering, when we got back to the car, the car that had parked behind us was gone as was the man who offered to move the car for us. There were many other cars still parked in the middle of the street but we backed our car out of its parking place and drove back to Benimassot.

Completion of Suspended Games

Even though I did not attend a sporting event last night, the minor league game from Tuesday night ended with the Peoria Chiefs defeating the Kane County Cougars 9-8 in 12 innings. The final 3.5 innings were played in Peoria in front of a crowd of 4,232. Although it was the first suspended baseball game I have attended, it was not the first suspended sporting event.

On December 12, 2004, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I were at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium watching Real Madrid host Real Sociedad. With 3 minutes left in the match, the referees waived for all the players to leave the pitch. Since Nicole and I were taking pictures in the aisle we had a head start as everyone else started to evacuate the section (the picture shows how high we were sitting).

The stadium was evacuated in about 10 minutes as ETA (a violent separatist organization in Spain) had phoned in a bomb threat on the stadium. Nicole and I walked 5 miles back to our hotel as we did not want to take the subway because of an attack that might occur there. The match resumed on January 5, 2005.