Spain-0 USA-2

Last year, we watched game after game as Spain defeated opponents in the 2008 Euro Cup. It was a good year to be in Spain as they defeated Italy for the first time in 88 years, and then won the championship against Germany in the final.

So this year, when we noticed various TV channels had begun airing the 2009 FIFA Confederartions Cup, we got excited to watch Spain play again. I mean, they are one of the top teams in the world, and we do live in their country and one person in our household is a huge fan of soccer-both as a spectator and as a player. (The rest of us just enjoy watching and/or dancing during the games-can you guess who is who?)

But who would have thought that we'd get to watch our home country play against Spain?? Jesse plays soccer with guys from church on Monday nights and he learned that Spain would be playin the US on Wednesday night. By Tuesday afternoon, I'd decided it was a good excuse for a party and we invited Spanish, American and Romanian friends to come. By the time the game was rolling, our living room held 6.5 Americans, and 3 Spaniards. As the night went on, those numbers changed to 5.5 Americans, and 5 Spaniards (Although 2 of those Spaniards were the girls from upstairs who didn't totally come in the door because they were taking their dogs for a walk. I'm just trying to boost the Spanish numbers here . . .)

Cupcakes with each countries colors represented (the cupcake liners were part of the color scheme too . . . you just can't see them in this picture.)

So what do you offer in terms of food when hosting a soccer party for mostly guys, from 2 different countries?

• Hot dogs and Chips
• Enchiladas and Chips and Salsa (I know . . . not really American, but kind of . . .)
• Chorizo (think salami-sort of.)
• Queso de Cabra Semi-curado (sliced qoat cheese)
• Slices of bread (baguette style)
• Olives
• Olive oil to drizzle on cheese which is on the sliced bread (so good by the way)

US scores it 2nd goal (can you spot the little .5 American?)

And in case you are wondering what that FIFA Confederations Cup is, it's held every 4 years, one year before the FIFA World Cup, in the World Cup host country. The US was playing because they were the champions of the North American Continent, and Spain, the champions of Europe. This was a HUGE upset as Spain was the 2008 Euro Cup champions, and one of the top rated teams in the world, and the US . . . well . . . the US just doesn't have a great history as being a top ranked team. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that little boys in the US are raised playing football while the rest of the world's little boys are raised playing futbol everday with their friends.)

According to Wikipedia (and as Michael Scott said: "If it's on Wikiepedia, you know it's true) the Confederations Cup was originally called King Fahd Cup as it was originally started by Saudi Arabia. FIFA took over the tournament in 1997, changing the name to the FIFA Confederations Cup.

It was a fun night, especially since we truly expected the US to lose. Of course Fede (popular blog guest) was there and he was talking big before the game even started about how much we were going to loose. Poor guy . . . we even got him to miss his salsa dancing class for the game. However when asked why he really came? He said it was because of my cooking. Yes. Fede is my favorite Spaniard by far.