The trip to Madrid had originally come about because I’d seen that Rayo Vallecano were playing on a Monday night, presumably for television. I found a hotel right on the edge of Retiro Park that was around a forty minute walk from the ground. It was also handy for the Anthropology Museum that has the skeleton of a giant and the head of a pirate, but unfortunately, that’s closed on Mondays.
The park was ok though, we had a wander around to get the steps in as well as stopping for lunch in one of the restaurants there. It was warmer than you might expect Madrid to be in December and so we sat outside. This had the benefit of sparrows that were bold enough to land on the tablecloth, looking for crumbs. It didn’t take long before some of the braver ones were eating bread directly from my hand.
Earlier that morning I’d walked to the Campo de Futbol de Vallecas to buy my ticket. Most of the tickets that I’ve bought on this trip to Spain have been digital, but Rayo are old school and you can only get them at the ground. At 11am I joined a queue of about a dozen people and picked up a ticket for the upper tier Alta Lateral section. It was fifteen euros which I thought pretty cheap for La Liga. I’ve paid more than that for fourth and fifth tier fixtures.
I liked the look of the stadium. For a start, it’s in the city with shops and houses all around. That compares very favourably with, say, my visit the previous day to Atletico’s new out-of-town super stadium. There’s a Metro station right next to the entrance, but as it’s only a forty-minute walk, it was something that I could leave for others.
The fellas in front of me in the ticket queue were from the away side, Celta de Vigo. It’s a decent trip from Galicia, particularly for a 9pm kick-off on a Monday night. They had baggage with them though, so presumably were staying over, perhaps so that they could pop in and see the pirate’s head the next morning.
That evening I retraced my steps to the ground. It was a lot busier, although I suspect that the streets around the ground would be busy most nights. There were plenty of options for eating and drinking including roadside vendors selling cans of beer from cool boxes. I’m not sure you’d get away with that in the UK.
Lots of people were drinking from cans prior to going in as there’s no alcohol served inside the ground in the top divisions of Spanish football. I’m quite comfortable with that as it’s rarely a pleasurable experience chugging back crap beer in a freezing concourse anyway. I’d be even less comfortable if it were allowed in the seating areas. Whilst they could probably handle it in Spain you just know that goals in England would result in pints being hurled up into the air.
It’s not just the drinking that’s more civilised out here, the relationships between the fans are much more grown up. There’s no problem wearing away colours in the home parts of the ground or with away fans milling around outside the stadium pre or post-match. There were plenty of people wearing Celta scarves around me, something that wouldn’t be tolerated by some of the home fans even in the West Stand at the Boro.
The ground holds about fifteen thousand but wasn’t quite full. I could see a few vacant seats around me and also in the edges of the Tribuna opposite. To my right was the home vocal section where the Rayo fans spent the game singing and waving flags. It was probably the best atmosphere of the trip, certainly better than that at Atletico the day before.
Rayo are mid table and looked much changed from the side that I’d seen nick the win at Yeclano a few days earlier. They were wearing their Peru colours which I’d noticed since arriving in Madrid are also the colours adopted by the city taxis. Celta are third from bottom with Rafa in the dugout. He’s from Madrid and so probably knows the area around the ground well. I’d like to think that he’ll have popped into Retiro park to hand feed the sparrows too.
Rayo looked good, with some swift one touch passing. Early on I’d have been confident of them taking the points, but half time came and went without them making their superiority count. Celta grew more into the game in the second half and whilst Rayo still had more urgency about them, they couldn’t do enough to break the visitors down. It finished goalless and after a fourth forty-minute stroll of the day I was back in the hotel as midnight approached.
Trail of the Lion King 