Adventures in Stalking

I say this very tongue-in-cheek because I am actually way too impatient to do any proper stalking. So this trip to the City of Brotherly Love wasn’t exactly a passing grade in Stalking 101.

I’ll leave out the majority of the stress that was involved in just getting to Philadelphia and jump right in to when Stop Sign and I parked at Independence Hall. Keep in mind that when I landed at noon, I had been awake for 30 hours with only about an hour and a half nap at 3am. All of this because of getting home late from a business trip the night before.

I think that it was about 103 F degrees out when we made our way downtown. Stop Sign knows me well enough to know that the best way to keep me from being cranky is to feed me. So that was the first thing we did. After I shoved a massive Hard Rock Cafe salad into my face, we braved the heat and headed toward the Ritz-Carlton.

Stop Sign was wearing her Iker Casillas jersey and as we walked someone yelled out a car window “Barcelona’s better!”
I don’t have much of a brain-to-mouth filter as it is, so when I’m tired that little bit of one pretty much shuts down completely. I do admit that I missed a bit of a beat and he probably didn’t hear me, but I did respond with “At diving!”

When we showed up at the hotel there really weren’t many people there. Stop Sign and I were actually the first female fans to be there. Because of the heat, the hotel staff were allowing people to stand inside, but making them stand up on the top of about 3 steps across from the elevators. We stood there with two other girls who had walked up not long after us and debated whether to stay or go back outside.

In the middle of this debate I heard one or two people go “Zidane?” I looked to where a few Real Madrid staff were standing and I didn’t see him until one of the staff moved. And for only the second time in my life (and only the first time that day) I was starstruck. It took me a moment to realize that it was him. And by the time I did realize it, I was freaking out a little bit because he was only 10 feet away from me. So by the time I even had the thought to take a picture, he was about to turn away. Unfortunately all I managed was this blurry shot of the back of his beautiful head.

The back of Zizou's beautiful head

Almost directly after that we walked back outside. It was getting a little too crowded inside and we figured that outside we had a better chance of them actually stopping. We were still talking to the other two girls we’d met and joking about what we’d be doing if we saw a bunch of fans waiting outside of the hotel for us. Most of this consisted of us laughing about what Marcelo and Pepe would be doing. I imagined them filling water balloons and dropping them on our heads. Not that I’d ever do that myself… *insert innocent face here*

Finally the four of us (Stop Sign and I, and the other two girls) couldn’t wait anymore. I hadn’t even been to the hotel yet, so we walked to a nearby Starbucks for another tried and tested theory on how to keep me from getting cranky: Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino. We sat in the air conditioning for a bit before we headed back toward the Ritz-Carlton on the off chance someone would be outside.

It turns out that Zizou had come back out not even five minutes after we’d left. He’d signed some autographs and even made pictures with a few fans. Needless to say I was a little disappointed.

We left the other two girls after exchanging Twitter screennames (Real Madrid fans are truly the best in the world) and headed back to our hotel. After a quick shower and the very difficult decision of which jersey to wear (I finally decided on my Xabi Alonso home jersey), we went across the street to get some dinner. We knew the gates for the stadium opened at 7:30 and, after missing most of the warm-up when we went to L.A. last year to see them, we wanted to get there early.

When we got to the stadium and were let in, we got to our section and found that there were a ton of people crowded into where our seats were supposed to be. I honestly don’t remember thinking anything of it, but I’m sure I did. And as we walked down to the front row, Stoppie stepped aside and said something about me being more forceful and pushing through crowds better. So I said a “excuse me” a few times rather loudly as I snuck past people. When a couple of them wouldn’t move, I looked up at them said “Those are MY seats, not yours” and pushed past them. Yes… I can be a huge bitch when I’m hot, tired and in a crowd.

There was a little boy, probably about 4-years-old, and his father standing in front of our seats. So I let them stay and just stood behind the little boy. He was adorable and I can’t deny a kid the chance to get an autograph from a player, who I suddenly realized were sitting in the dugout right in front of us.

I noticed Kaka first, as he was standing. And I was immediately struck by just exactly how beautiful he is in person. I mean, I always knew he was a good looking guy. But just the sheer aura about him was incredible. At this point, I was already sweating heaps and the fact that there were so many people in such  small area wasn’t helping. Everyone was yelling at the boys. Marcelo, Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were directly in front of us and Nuri Sahin and Sami Khedira were in the dugout next to them. I shot this video quickly using my iPhone. And yes that’s my voice explaining I was shooting the video because Kaka was dancing. But you can hear everyone yelling at the boys.

Kaka and Marcelo acknowledged the crowd the most. I don’t remember Coentrao ever turning around at all. And CR turned around once before they walked away. He did however sign autographs either before we got there or over near the tunnel as he was walking back in.

At one point I had to laugh at the people yelling and I decided to make fun of them. I looked at Stop Sign and put on a really annoying, high-pitched voice before (accidentally) yelling “PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!” I really wish I had this part on video because when I looked back toward Kaka, he was looking up at us and laughing. I really could do nothing other than hide my face with my camera.

When they did decide to leave the field, they all waved at the fans before walking away. Cristiano was the last to get up and I missed snapping a picture of him (other than one of his back). I did grab this one of Fabio messing around with Kaka though. I love the camaraderie between the two of them already!

The keepers came out to warm up long before the starters and I couldn’t blame whoever had made the decision to keep the starters in the air conditioning for as long as possible.

I was already starting to feel a little awful and I’d already chugged a bottle of water. It was a good thing I’d put a tank top on under my Alonso jersey because I was sure I’d already begun sweating through it.

I couldn’t stop snapping pictures of the perfect profile (thank you for pointing this out Una!). And finally I managed to move away and snap a few of the other goalkeepers before I realized that the battery on my camera was already dying. I’d forgotten to charge it.

With 15 minutes before the start of the game, Mr. Classy led the starters out onto the field for warmup and I started going nuts clicking away again. The fact that it was Xabi leading the “charge” onto the field put a huge smile on my face. It just seemed so fitting.

They warmed up on the far end of the field from us. I pretty much just found a random player and started clicking. I mostly have pictures of Ricardo Carvalho, which is fine because I have serious love for him.

Judging by the good luck rub of the head so does Xabi-In-Training, Esteban Granero.

When they transitioned into some quick movement drills I was incredibly impressed with the intensity that Xabi has even just warming up. I snapped a few of the moments here as well. My favorite being the little moment between Mesut Ozil and Karim Benzema. I wonder what language they were speaking?

The other players came out, led by Raul Albiol, after the starters had gone back inside. And again I was struck by just how good looking he is in person (which happened a lot, by the way). I also wasn’t expecting him to be as tall as he is and I’m not sure why. He spotted a sign next to us and pointed it out to everyone. It was for the Portuguese players and they all looked. Marcelo ended up leading them in a move from The Mighty Ducks. Anyone remember the Flying V?

I just love how they look like a posse! Would you mess with them?

And I love this moment between a Philly Union player and Kaka when he came jogging out.

Mou had spotted the sign next to us, which was for the Portuguese guys as I said. He walked over right in front of us and had a signed shirt in his hand. He tossed it up to the girls that had the sign, and this is where it gets a little fucked up (forgive my language).

Mou looked directly at this girls next to us in the front row. He pointed at them before making to toss it up to them. There were a couple of guys that had been standing there talking with the girls and had even taken pictures with the sign. So when Mou tossed the shirt up to the girls. One of the guys grabbed it. He literally had to reach in front of this girl to snag the shirt and that’s exactly what he did. When he’d grabbed the shirt out of the air (and practically out of the girl’s hands) he just turned around and took off. Someone said something to him and he just said “Oh well, it’s mine. I caught it.” I wish I had actually realized what was going on, because I would have grabbed it back and given it to the girl. She was surprisingly good-natured about it, saying that Mou saw it and that’s all she really wanted. But that is one of the most douche-y things I’ve ever seen. Considering a few more stories similar to this, I have to say that it has left a bad taste in my mouth for fans in Philadelphia.

On a happier note here is the DILF himself, Jose Mourinho, right in front of us.

Skipping to the match itself…

Callejòn opened scoring. I was thoroughly impressed by just the incredible togetherness the team plays with. I wanted to get into the game more than I was, but at this point I was seriously beginning to feel the effects of the heat and I wasn’t even doing anything. I was just feeling gross.

When Ozil scored I jumped to my feet and immediately regretted it. I felt my head go fuzzy along with my vision. I wobbled a little bit and I noticed one of the Philly Union staff looking up at me. He moved like he thought I was going to fall over the ledge of the stands and onto the field behind their bench. I sat down pretty quick and downed the rest of my water, but for the rest of the game I was feeling miserable.

By the time the subs got up to warm up everyone on the field looked utterly destroyed. Ozil showed it on his face the most. He, however, is amazing. He’s so phenomenally light on his feet. It’s like his feet never touch the ground as he’s running. I imagine he’s the embodiment of Hermes/Mercury; the Greek/Roman messenger god. You know, the guy that had the wings on his shoes.

The subs jogged past us to warm up and as they stood there stretching the fans were screaming at Cristiano. I even heard a few of them getting frustrated because the players wouldn’t acknowledge them. I’m sorry, but what do you expect? They’re concentrated and trying to focus. Would you enjoy it if someone was trying to distract you before you took an exam for school or had a big meeting for work?

Obviously there was a major substitution at half time. Marcelo was given the captain’s armband. I love seeing him with it.

I was sad that Sergio didn’t play, but something makes me smile when Marcelo has the armband. Who am I kidding? Marcelo makes me smile.

The team didn’t play as well in the second half. I can’t blame them. At that point my head had started pounding and I’d stopped sweating. The first thing I learned about heat stroke/exhaustion was that if you stop sweating and your skin is dry and hot, it’s a REALLY bad thing. My enthusiasm was kind of killed at that point and I hated it.

A few things of note were a couple of Cristiano free-kicks, one of which was saved very well by Philly’s goalkeeper. There was also a little lover’s quarrel between Marcelo and Fabio that happened right in front of us.

Arbeloa walked in front of us when he was subbed out and, again, looked completely destroyed. He played most of the game and if I felt as incredibly horrible as I did I can’t imagine what the players felt like. I did notice that his collar wasn’t popped. Cristiano’s actually wasn’t popped at first either, but somewhere throughout the game it had a mind of it’s own and popped itself.

There was some great play by Kaka and I was so happy to see him getting back on form. He is by far one of my favorite players ever. I really love the Brazilian players it seems, since Ronaldo is my all-time favorite.

At the end of the game, our boys rushed off the field as quickly as possible. I know they had to jump on a flight back to Madrid that night, but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t even applaud the fans before heading back through the tunnel. It was the only disappointment of the night for me. All-in-all I once again enjoyed my Real Madrid experience.

Stop Sign and I made our way back to the car and ended up sitting in the parking lot for about 2 hours. The final attendance of the game was over 57,000 people and there had been two other events at the stadiums that share parking lots with Lincoln Financial.

As we sat in the car I kept fluctuating between being extremely hot and incredibly cold. I was giddy, but I was feeling rather ill and my speech was starting to slur a little bit. I know I was tired (at midnight I’d been awake for 42 hours) but the temperatures and humidity were just making it 10 times worse. My headache ended up lasting until the next night. I know I’m not the only one. Lozil over at Of Headbands and Heartbreak had a very similar reaction to the heat.

So after a very difficult but amazing day of my Real Madrid “stalking” I have come to two conclusions.

1) I will go to the Bernabeu to see them play in the next year to year and a half. I can only imagine what the atmosphere is like there.

2) I need to apply to be a Real Madrid photographer. I completely rocked the thumbs up picture…