Dreaming teams
It’s Ronaldinho’s birthday! He never gets me anything, so I didn’t bother either. But I will type a few paragraphs as an excuse for us to watch the Brazilian’s first league goal for Barcelona.
The Catalans’ first home game of the 2003-2004 season was an unusually nocturnal affair. Barcelona had hoped to line up against Sevilla on Tuesday 2nd September. This early evening date would have allowed Barca’s legion of international players to take to the field, cheat on their countries, and still be home in time for that weekend’s Euro 2004 qualifiers.
This turned out to be a fine plan on paper, if not in practice. It was decided that Sevilla’s first XI were far too busy to be playing football on Tuesday night - they’d be washing their kit or some equally implausible excuse. The game would be played the following day.
This stubbornness irritated Barcelona no end; instead of remaining aloof in the face of provocation, the club indulged in some equally bad behaviour. Sevilla would get their game on the day they wanted, only Barça would pick the time.
It was this unsightly scrapping that filled the Camp Nou with 80,000 fans at five minutes past midnight on Wednesday 3rd September.
Barcelona slumbered through the first half, going a goal behind to a José Antonio Reyes penalty after ten minutes. But Ronaldinho roused the home side from their nightmare and won a point with a ridiculous second half goal.