F.C. Barcelona, the futbol club I have been following since my days in Catalunya, have made it to the final of the European Champions League! They will be playing Arsenal (from London) on May 17th in Paris. The winner will be crowned European Champions. Barca has the opportunity to win a prestigious double...being Euro champs and Spanish League Champs. The last time the boys in blue and garnet won the Champions trophy was 1992.The Champions League is a year long tournament made up of the first and second place finishers in all the various European leagues. They begin the tourney with a group stage. The top finishers in each group advance to a bracketed tournament. In the tournament each team plays a home and away match. Whoever wins the aggregate advances through the bracket.
The Champions League is the most prestigious club soccer tournament in the world. It's considered a huge honor to win your nation's league title. But it's considered something entirely else to win the "League of Champions."
The only soccer tournament that is bigger is the World Cup itself...which is made of national teams. So now, I have to find where I'm going to watch this game. I don't have cable or satellite...but hopefully the game will be on Spanish language television. Even though I don't understand half of what the announcer are saying they're more interesting than the talking heads covering American sporting events.
So Forca Barca!
