Thursday, June 28, 2012
Spain winning the Euro-Cup, who would have thought this would happen while we were here? Well technically it hasn’t happened yet, but they are close because they won last night against Portugal and are going to the finals! It was such a great game, and especially great to watch it in a plaza with what felt like the rest of the city of Santiago. Spain and Portugal both played a good game; it was 0-0 the whole game and even all throughout overtime, and it all came down to the penalty kicks. Emotions were running high throughout the plaza and even us eight Meredith girls who never really cared about European fútbol before were nervous for the outcome of the game. Fingers were crossed, nails being bitten, and hands being held in order to contain the nerves.

With every goal made or missed goal there was unison of celebration or sighs of unhappiness. I think it would have been impossible to be in that crowd and not have been caught up in the emotion and been cheering for Spain like you had lived there your whole life. When Spain scored the crowd erupted with emotion and our ears were filled with the noise of a cheering crowd, whistles, drums, horns, and other miscellaneous noise devices. There were a few Portugal fans there that got stared down with hatred whenever they cheered for a goal made by Portugal; to be honest I was slightly scared for them. But they don’t even matter now. Portugal lost and Spain is going to the final, which is all that matters. I’m so excited to sit in the plaza again Sunday night and cheer on Spain like my life depends on it. ¡Viva España!