Fan Experiences vs. Real Madrid

Here's how the site managers watched last week's 2-2 draw at El Madrigal. We want to hear from you in the comments -- tell us how you enjoyed the 90-minute spectacle.

siempre_riquelme and Maddi (Washington, District of Columbia, USA):

Maddi and I joined a few friends at a sports bar in our nation's capital. College football was the order of the day, but we found a nice area to watch the match on mute. Maddi shouted on behalf of Yellow Submarine fans worldwide when Rubén Cani scored, and the bartender (a Real Madrid fan) was relatively quiet throughout. The exuberance was slightly embarrassing, but no surprise from our site's founder.

I may have vented on Jaume Costa's point-blank miss, but really how could we complain? A point that should have been three against the most expensive lineup in world history -- not bad. The Submarine (and its fans) are back.

aupasubmarino (Seattle, Washington, USA):

I couldn't watch the first half live as I was at the Seattle Sounders reserves game. I watched the second half in the players' lounge and had some good banter with some of the players who are merengue fans. When Madrid went ahead, they were pretty confident of the result. It is always interesting, informative, and fun watching football alongside professionals.

I watched the first half later at home, and I felt a lot of pride seeing the way Villarreal outplayed Real Madrid.

Allen Dodson (Northern California, USA):

I watched the match at home with my Villarreal flag proudly displayed on our front deck -- probably against homeowners' association rules, but who cares.

It was great to have the game on proper TV so I didn't have to fiddle around with streams, though I hated the Madrid "homer" color commentator. When Cani scored, I admit I too made a good deal of noise!

I figured we needed to take a lead into halftime to get anything from the match, so when Gareth Bale scored, I expected Madrid would take it to us in the second half. But they did not -- their second goal was a fluke, though it did come from the sort of counterattack to be wary of against them. Costa's miss was pretty bad, but Giovani dos Santos' equalizer made up for it; no points would have been a travesty.

The hard part was after the match: I wanted to savor the result, talk about it, celebrate it. I wish I had been in a sports bar or with other soccer fans somewhere to do that. Oh well, another time!