Argentina and Messi!

Check another one off the bucket list!  I've seen Leo Messi pay soccer.  I also added one to the list, "See Messi score" so hopefully we get to go to Barcelona again to see a game before I'm too old or Messi retires!

I think the majority of the fans had come to see one man play!  Never have I heard the subs be cheered so much as they walked onto the pitch!

There he is!  Best in the world!  #10 Leo Messi!

But before we would see him play we did have some other world class players to watch. Like Gonzalo Higuaín #9, formerly of Real Madrid (but I'm not holding that against him) and now playing for Napoli where he was the top scorer in the Italian league last year! And Sergio Agüero  #11 who plays for Manchester United.

Argentina played well.  Love that I caught this goal.

And the celebration afterwards!

Three times the roar went up from the crowd, "Messi, Messi, Messi!" At the beginning of the 2nd half to thunderous applause, he came on the field. Unfortunately just as I snapped the perfect photo of his entrance, the woman in front of me decided to stand up.  Oh well!  Here he is on the pitch just about to take a free kick, which almost went in!

 

And here he is making one of his famous moves!  In this game he managed to nutmeg the keeper but the goal was disallowed for off-sides.  Messi can mesmerize with his speed and dribbling skill....or he can make a perfectly placed pass to a teammate!   I actually felt sorry for #4 who had to man-mark him!  I'm sure the coaches instructions were something like, "Don't let him out of your sight." At least at the end they traded shirts!

 

Definitely a night I'll always remember!

Oh and one senior moment that could have been a disaster - George came home from work early so that we could make the 3 hour drive to Seattle, get checked into the hotel, and walk to the game.  Portland traffic can be bad so we got over the bridges to Vancouver, Washington and decided to stop at Quiznos for lunch.  As we finished eating George looked at me and asked if I had the tickets!  No I didn't and neither did he!   So back to LO we went, got the tickets and started out again!  I was nervous as the traffic was even worse and this little glitch added about 2 hours to our travel time but we made it just in time to hear the national anthems!  Could have been much worse!