LYON 2, REAL MADRID 0

Sorry that I haven't been writing over the past few days. Wednesday night was the last night of our group work (before Thursday's presentation) and the past two nights I've been out in the evenings with classmates.

Wednesday night, after finishing my group's report on Beaujolais, I slipped out of Ecully, where our school is located, and rushed over to Stade Gerland to see Lyon take on Madrid in the Champions League. I caught the bus home, dropped off my computer and bags (you can't take anything into the stadium, for security reasons), and jumped back on the metro and was in the stadium in just over an hour, and just in time for kickoff.

One year ago, even with Zidane on their side, Real Madrid lost 3-0. This time, they lost again, 2-0, to a Lyon team that played with confidence and cool, a group of players who did not let themselves be intimidated by a lineup of famous names, including Beckham and Cannavaro and Raul.

Even moreso than on last Saturday, the fans were tremendous. I sat again in the area where my season ticket for the regular season is located, in the upper stands in the North end of the stadium, again hardcore fans. Down below were the Badgone supporters with loudspeakers screaming chants and singing, up where I was sitting the supporters cursed every bad call by the referee and whistled at Beckham each time he made a mistake. Whistling, siffler, from what I understand, is not to cheer for your team as we do in the U.S., but rather a way to insult the opposition.

I hated leaving my colleagues to put together the rest of the presentation, but they were nice enough to tell me, "You have the ticket, so go, enjoy the game." And it was one of the best games I have ever seen.

There is one thing that supporters do that may sound a little bizarre, but, well, it's just something they do. To cheer on their team, they stand up and start jumping in the stands, screaming, "qui ne sautent pas n'est pas Lyonnais" (whoever isn't jumping with us isn't a Lyonnais fan). As a result the ground beneath the upper stands starts shaking (though not in a dangerous way). I don't know if U.S. football fans ever get so rowdy!