Sergio Ramos Drops the Cup

When I went to bed the other night, Real Madrid was playing Barca for the Copa del Rey.  We couldn’t get the game on TV here, and Alec had gone to watch it at a sports bar across the street which turned out to actually be a betting hall.  Turkish men kept asking him to place bets the whole time he was there.  Alec texted me that, at the end of regular time, the score was 0 – 0.  In a normal game, that would be it.  Tie score.  But since it was a championship game, the game went into extra time. And in the 103^rd minute, Cristiano Ronaldo headed the ball into the goal to make it 1 – 0 Real Madrid.  And that’s how the game ended.

Now, Barca and Madrid are playing each other an unprecedented number of times over a couple of weeks to decide three championships.  Barca fans would argue that the Copa del Rey was the least important of these; in fact, Pep Guardiola, Barca’s coach, long ago announced that he would play Barca’s second string goalie, Pinto, throughout that series, a clear indication that it was not his top priority.

However, a win is a win, and Real Madrid played extremely well.  What’s ironic is what happened after the game.  As the team celebrated, riding through the streets on the top of a bus surrounded by cheering fans, Sergio Ramos (my personal favorite Real Madrid player) dropped the championship cup.  He literally dropped the 15 kilo cup from the top of the bus to the ground.  The bus driver did not see it . . . and ran over it, crushing the cup.  Check out this video footage.

Apparently, the silversmith who makes the cup always makes a backup—go figure.  So he drove the cup to Madrid and they quickly had a replacement.  But you have to admit, after all those years without the trophy, it’s pretty funny.