Friday, Dec 7 – we just arrived back in Barcelona after a 1 night trip to Valencia. We were going to stay longer, but one of the game days was changed so we had to get back earlier.  Kind of a shame as Valencia seemed like a really cool town.  The 3 1/2 hour train ride was really nice along the Atlantic Coast.

While there we got to see a Europa Cup match between Levante (Spain) and Hanover (Germany).  The Germans got of to a really strong start from the opening whistle – and that was just their fans, who littered the town square with beer bottles and trash and put a bunch of soap in the fountain.  They were also very loud kinda like the Timbers Army, and put the home fans to shame.

On the field, Hanover took a 2-0 lead in the first half, and a couple great saves by Levante’s keeper kept it from being 4-0.   Levante obviously got a talking to from the coach at halftime, as they dominated the 2nd half, scoring this goal 4 minutes in:

At the end of the video I panned over to the Hannover section, which was as quiet as they’d been all night. Levante got the equalizer at the 94 minute mark to cap off a very entertaining match.

After the game we hit the Portland Ale House, owned by a Portland ex-pat.  That was a lotta fun.  We presented them with a THUSC jersey to hang on their wall.

We’re resting up this afternoon then heading to a La Liga match between Espanyol and Sevilla.