A Few Final Thoughts About the Atlético Madrid Game and Another Day at the Office

Wednesday, 2 November, 2016:

A few final thoughts about Tuesday night's Atlético-Rostov UEFA Champions League match . . .

Breakfast at La Tertulia with . . .

 . . . the local sports only newspaper

It was packed chock full of all sorts of interesting facts about Tuesday's exciting contest.

Estadio Vicente Calderón has a seating capacity of 54,907. Surprisingly, only 40,392 fans were in attendance at the match. I know that there were a lot of empty seats by design surrounding the end zone section reserved for the F,C, Rostov fans by design but I don't think that it totaled 10,000 seats.

I said in my previous post that I thought that Atlético had the ball in their possession in their offensive end of the pitch for about 80% of the match. The statistics bore me out as Atlético was credited with 31 shots, eight on goal. By comparison, F.C. Rostov only took six shots, three on goal.

Antoine Griezmann

Atletico's Two Goal Hero

Griezmann is 25 years old and hails from France where top notch, and my favorite French club, Olympique Lyonnais once refused to offer him a contract due to his small size.

My fútbol inside sources tell me that Griezmann will soon be one of the richest fútbol players in the world.

Nice call OL.

Griezmann's first goal came at the 28th minute while his dramatic game winner came in the 93rd to secure the 2-1 victory for Atlético.

Finally, the thing that I love about attending fútbol games in Europe is the aspects of the matches that make the entire affair a form of a Passion Play complete with players who are seemingly killed during the action but miraculously resurrect themselves.

Often.

The fans are extremely passionate about their teams with community singing of a wide variety team oriented chants. I found the Atlético fans to be both knowledgable and positive throughout the contest.

All in all, a great night for a fútbol match.

On Wednesday, I headed into Arganda del Rey to do a little shopping.

 One of my favorite road signs

"Todas Direcciones"

You see these all over Spain, if you follow it you can go in any direction you want and get anywhere in the known universe apparently.

These guys have a serious history,

especially in the Franco years 

I took note of some of the interesting artwork that is a large part of the pueblo's old town

A Catholic Country after all

 How old is this mail slot

A Peńa is a social club

Both of these Peñas apparently

have bullfighting in common

Fine craftsmanship

Old and a bit weatherbeaten

Grate still defending a

dilapidated edifice

Solarium?

Nice Crest

It was closed for the afternoon

Damn.

I bought my Lottery Ticket

for the HUGE Christmas Lottery

Today was the

Day of the Dead, a.k.a.,

El Dia de los Muertos

I wonder how many write-in

votes for President he'll get Tuesday?

On to Rivas for our usual two Osos practices from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Junior nine-man offense

looked good tonight

The Junior defense needs to

improve a bunch SOON!

 The Seniors had a lively scrimmage

As the Offensive Line Coach, I have been leaving our Senior workouts both happy and frustrated for the past two weeks.

The happiness comes from the continued daily improvement of our individual athletes. They are coachable young men with no fear in their hearts or as the Spanish say, they have gains.

The frustration stems from the continued absences by so many of our linemen making team time difficult.

In the photo above, the left tackle and left guard are receivers who are stepping in to help during our scrimmage time.

The center, right guard and right tackle are the three that I can count on to be at practice nearly every night. They are really improving quickly because of their dedication and hard work.

Punky vs. Pardo

Pinky is our right tackle and Pardo is the defense's left end.

Friendly off the field, these two wage war during our nightly scrimmages. Their competition is fun to watch and is making both of them improve greatly.

As for the COUNTDOWN, there are now . . .

. . . more days until Laurie leaves

for Spain!

That's right, Zero more days, she is in the air as I write.

She arrives in Madrid at 6:00 p.m. local time on Thursday after a layover in Munich.

YAHOOOOOOO!