Waking up for the love of the game

Being in Asia, I have to wake up at 3:30 a.m. this morning to watch live two of my favourite football (soccer, to americans) teams -- Arsenal (English Premier League) and Real Madrid (Spanish Primera Liga) clash it out in the 1st knockout stage of the UEFA champions League.

As I said earlier, I like these two teams. I like Arsenal because of their enigmatic skipper, Thierry Henry. While I also like Real Madrid because Ronaldo and Zizou (zidane) plays for them. And I really have trouble deciding which team to favour. My feeling though seem to be favouring Arsenal since they are the underdog in this match and they haven't won europe's most prestigious tournament while Real won the cup a record nine times.

The odds though, are going against Arsenal, since there has never been any English team in history to beat Real Madrid in their home ground.

I went on to watch the game, and was surprised how the English side dominated the game leaving the Galacticos chasing. The highest moment of the game came in the 2nd minute of the second half where Thierry Henry past through 3 men in route to poaching a goal to the far corner of the net.

The result: 1-0 in favor of the London club. A new record established and a giant injured. But there's still the second leg in two weeks (this time to be played in London). And I expect Real to be more agressive by then.

Though the game yielded only a single goal, it is by far a very entertaining game and I wasn't sorry I exchanged two hours of nice sleep for it. It even made me forgot the hangover pains I got from the food poisoning I got a day before.

Now, I think I have to wake up again tomorrow to watch CHELSEA and BARCELONA. :)