TOR!!!!!

TOR!!! is equivalent to GOOOOLLLL!!!

Most famous performance attractions here in Vienna are on holiday for the months of July and August. The opera is stopped, the Spanish Horse School shows are on vacation, the Vienna Choir, and for all I know the entire government. I thought I had checked earlier to see if any club soccer would be playing, but it looked like they were on break as well. Luckily the other day I noticed that there were some matches going on so I looked into it again and wouldn't you know, but Rapid Wien FK was playing Valencia CF today. Rapid Wien (Vienna) is the most popular and most successful team in the Austrian Football league. Valencia CF is probably the third most popular and successful team in the La Liga, behind of course Real Madrid and Barcelona. This seemed like a good match to attend even though it wouldn't be a bitter rivalry match or league championship.

My parents and I took the metro 17 stops across Vienna to Gerhard Hanappi Stadium in the south westernmost outskirts to get tickets just in time to miss kickoff. The 15 Euro sideline seats were great outside of the copious amounts of second-hand smoke all around. Valencia started off looking strong and creative, but a nice counter attack by Vienna led to their first goal and a fluke cross going upper 90 resulted in their second taking them 2-0 to halftime. By the end Vienna took it to Valencia, 4-1, with Valencia's lone goal coming in the 90th minute. Being the amateur photographer that I am managed to forget the memory card for my camera. I used a cell phone camera to take some great photos and video.



The blackish blobs on the field are Valencia players. The greenish blobs are Vienna players. This is right after Vienna scored their first goal. Wow, I really need to upgrade my camera so I can get some HD video on here.