My footballing weeeknd plans up the spout!!

Well at the weekend I settled down for the first league game of the season. Scarf near by (to hot to wear it at the moment here, but not the nice heat that horrible muggy heat!!) and iPlayer tuned to radio Scotland. Proud to say that I was a tad excited as last season had been great with "open all mics" keeping tuned in to the scores and a bonny wee bit o' Scottish banter. But this season I have been stopped before I have even started!! They have geo-blocked (can't listen outside uk) Scottish football!!

Any way I was saved from a desperate wait the final whistle  by Twitter and Raith live update, thanks!!

Today Paella and Bovril is from last Saturday's league opener which saw Raith seal victory against Falkirk.

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I am still trying to get to grips with the football season starting and it only really being the start of summer here. Last Friday was the biggest day of the year for holiday travel  “ operación  salida”, loosely translated as the exit operation, where most locals leave the city behind for the family summer homes (nearly every family here has some sort of summer home, ranging from  tent to a luxury villa). If you are local here you very rarely spend August at home.  Out with the main tourist areas Barcelona closes down, shops have notices in the window, “closed till August”, banks only open from 9.30 till 1 and the roads are empty. 

Football for me is not really a summer sport, well club football. I do love my world and European cup summers, but even then they are done and dusted by July and then we have a “summer” break. Football is more of a cold weather sport, and Scotland does have plenty of that! My most memorable moments in football do not involve many sunny day stories and maybe a few of us have a story of one day we got sunburnt at the football but we all have tales of being frozen stiff and losing the feeling in our toes!  But should there be more games on the sunny side instead of in the peeing rain. But who can guarantee the weather.

I have been layed up the past few days after an ankle operation and my slow slide into the boredom abyss has been slowed by the sheer amount of “summer” football in the tele and radio.  European qualifiers, friendliest and “cups” galore have been on the sports channels here.  Now normally I would not be using up quality beach time to watch pre season on the television but not being able to move very far or fast has given me the chance to try out the pre season package and to find out if I have been missing out on something all these years, and being in Barcelona I am left really with no choice but to watch Pep and his bunch of talented men in their preparation for the season to come. And when I say no choice I mean no choice, the tele is full of Barca this and Barca this, with a wee bit of Real Madrid  and Espanyol FC thrown in for good measure just to be “balanced” towards other teams!

I have been treated to over the past few day’s games from the Audi cup,  a four-team tournament played in Germany. This year saw Bayern Munich play Barcelona in the final, not a bad pre season fixture! This match was live on free tele.  Real Madrid played Leicester in glorious sunshine again live on the  free tele. On the news all week reporters have been following Barcelona around Washington DC before a match against Manchester United again live on tele a Sunday morning. Not bad for pre season,  I would not say no to any of these games!

Now pre season to me means a wee trip to some nice small place that has a chippie for a bag of chips before the match or a team from down south coming up and if your lucky you might get away with just a jumper. A nice bit of friendly fun for all really.  The match however usually is not memorable one and has substitution after substitution. But rehearsals are never pretty and these are really what a pre season is, the manager, players, the whole team and support even has to save the best for the “real” games.  

Maybe it is being unable to enjoy the sun to it’s max that is making me think that it does look awfully nice watching those matches in the sun, and the supporters look happier too! As a fan of football I want to be entertained by the game, and maybe you could enjoy those  “miserable matches” more if you were watching them thru rose tinted sunglasses! I know deep down I would rather buy factor 50-sun lotion than 50-denier thermals at the start season.  

Good luck to John McGlynn and all at Raith Rovers for the coming season.  Hope to see you soon!