Spain Vs Belgium

When I came to Europe, watching a Football Match in the stadium was one thing I wanted to do. The ocassion presented itself when Spain came to play Belgium in order to qualify for the World Cup 2006. The match was scheduled on October 8th 2004 in Brussles.


There were 7 IIMCians at the stadium. Arpit, Pushan Da, Nagraj, Hiran, Prakant Suede, Pankaj Jain and Shaunak. Apart from them, Tom, Hassan and Javier were there from the Amerikan College.

We were all seated in the Spanish camp for three main reasons:

• Tickets were cheaper
• Spanish Crowd is more lively
• Spain was more likely to win

The shouts of Ess-Paan-Ya... Ess-Paan-Ya electrified the atmosphere. We also had mexican waves going for quite some time. Unexpectedly, the first half was dominated by Belgium and they came close to scoring for three ocassion but for the heriocs of Cassius. It was the second half when things started to turn arround and Spain scored twice. What was the best part was that both the goals were scored at our end.. and the crowd went mad. The quality of Spanish play during the second half was amazing and they were getting more and more stylish as time passed.

The excitement did not end with the match, but carried on in our fight to catch the last train to Leuven. In the process, we changed 2 Metros and 1 Tram to get to Brussles-Nord. A nail-biting finish to an exciting day. The partying by the Spanish crowd, which started at the stadium, continued in the train upto Leuven.