¡Vamos Messi!

This is Lionel Messi. Pretty cool right? His nickname is "la pulga" which means "the flea". Not only is he regarded as one the best soccer players in the world today, leading FC Barcelona to win the treble, but he is also from Argentina. That launches him to uber cool status. Born in Rosario no less which was my mission home. So when the chance came for me to see him play I took it immediately. Messi, with FC Barcelona, made it to Seattle on Sunday and everyday this week I would come into work and learn about where he was the previous day. He was even down the road from me at UW's football stadium and I had no idea until it was too late (which is really too bad because I am sure if I could just meet him we would be the best of friends, what with the Rosario connection and all). Yesterday I got to see him finally when FC Barcelona played the Sounders as part of their US tour. I was several hundred feet away but I'll count it.

The stadium was filled with nearly 67,000 people, the largest soccer crowd to ever be in Seattle.

Barcelona wore their bright, nearly neon away jerseys to help us never lose sight of them. Thats Messi up near the top with the blue shoes. Frenchman Henry is down near the bottom. He is kind of a big deal, but also from France so not as super cool as Messi.

I got the feeling that Messi was not moving at his full speed as I caught him hanging around like this a few times, just putting out the vibe. Here's the best my camera could do to get a picture of him.

But I wasn't complaining, full speed or not, he managed to put in 2 goals in the first half. I was just hoping to see 1, but Messi being the great guy that he is gave me 2.

After his first golazo.

And after the second one. I am not too sure as I was pretty far away, but I am pretty sure that after each goal I saw him singling me out, probably because I was wearing my Argentina jersey, and giving me a nod. Classy guy I tell you.

Never mind that this Argentina squad was right there off the field. I'm pretty sure he was looking my way and was impressed that I was wearing the albiceleste.

The first half was great. Attacking soccer (mostly by Barcelona), but the Sounders did decently well and nearly had a goal or 2. As expected both teams pulled all their starters at half and the reserves came in for the second half (the Barcelona reserves put in 2 more goals...the Sounders did not). Messi was the player of the game and as he left the field he saluted and clapped for the fans. I suppose he could have just left the stadium at halftime, but that would have been pretty lame and stuck up. I mean who would do that, cough, cough, Beckham, cough, 3 years ago, cough, here with Real Madrid, cough, cough, loser, cough. Boy I never thought I would ever see Messi play in person, let alone score 2 golazos, and maybe he wasn't giving it 100%, but this was still cool. I can check that off my list of soccer dreams. Next I just need to go to an Argentina-Brazil game (and see Argentina beat 'em), and also a World Cup. Then all my soccer dreams will have come true.

Gracias a Messi y a FC Barcelona por venir a Seattle. Que nos visiten otra vez.