Barca’s midnight kickoff: Ronaldinho, gazpacho and a party

West Bromwich Albion’s derby recreation towards Wolverhampton Wanderers within the FA Cup this weekend (stream all video games reside on ESPN+) kicks off on the unusually early time of 11:45 a.m. on Sunday. “Early?” Barçelona may reply to that. “Hold my gazpacho.”

That’s as a result of the earliest a skilled soccer match has ever kicked off — or ought to this be the newest? — was at Camp Nou in September 2003 when Barça took on Sevilla in LaLiga at 12.05 a.m. on a Wednesday.

A party ambiance was created. Three tenors carried out earlier than the sport, there have been free KitKats and cups of gazpacho (a chilly soup comprised of blended greens) for the 80,237 supporters in attendance and Ronaldinho scored his first-ever purpose for Barça. The Brazilian, making his dwelling debut after signing from Paris Saint-Germain, took the ball from his personal half and crashed it in off the underside of the bar to make it 1-1 at round 01:30 a.m. native time.

But why on Earth did that every one occur within the early hours, with most individuals attributable to be waking up for work or college a few hours later?

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, extra (U.S.)

Well, the Spanish league had scheduled for the second spherical of fixtures that season to be performed in midweek earlier than the September worldwide break, main most groups to play Saturday by means of Tuesday earlier than their gamers headed off to hitch up with their respective international locations.

However, Barça and Sevilla couldn’t agree on a slot for his or her recreation. Sevilla could not transfer their weekend recreation, saying tickets had already been printed and dispatched for the Sunday, and additionally dominated out enjoying Monday or Tuesday as it will fall inside 48 hours of their earlier match.

Sensing a possibility to face a weakened Barça with out their internationals, in addition they refused to rearrange the fixture for later within the marketing campaign.

“LaLiga put the game on a Wednesday, but that meant Ronaldinho would have left to join up with Brazil,” Sandro Rosell, Barça’s vp on the time, advised the documentary “The Happiest Man in the World.”

“We thought, ‘Ufff, we are going to lose without him’ so we pushed for Tuesday with LaLiga. They said no. And then the idea came to us to play on the Wednesday five minutes after midnight. It was crazy, but we are thinking we have to do it because we need Ronaldinho.”

The membership checked the sporting statutes and laws to see if it was attainable and, as soon as they’d the inexperienced mild, “The Night of Gazpacho,” as it’s referred to domestically, was born.

“I remember we had a really long siesta before because the game started so late,” former Barca participant Sergio Santamaría advised ESPN. “And also the excitement to do something at that time. It was the same as when you were little and didn’t have school because you had something special on.

“It felt a bit like that, uncommon, that is what we felt due to the very fact we have been enjoying after midnight. It was completely different as a result of it was not a regular kick-off time. It was a battle to sleep afterwards!”

But not everyone was on board. “I nonetheless suppose it is senseless,” Joaquín Caparrós, Sevilla’s manager from 2000 to 2005, told reporters before the game. “It is unhealthy for soccer.”

Worried that fans would not turn up, Barça came up with different ways to persuade them to come to the game. They kept the club museum open until midnight, laid on music from three tenors and gave out 100,000 KitKats, 40,000 cups of gazpacho, 30,000 Actimel yogurts, 25,000 bags of Doritos, bread and jamón (cured ham). The response was a crowd of over 80,000.

Things did not get off to a great start, though. Ronaldinho was available, but Barça were deprived of their Netherlands internationals — Phillip Cocu, Patrick Kluivert, Michael Reiziger, Marc Overmars, Giovanni van Bronckhorst — and soon fell behind as José Antonio Reyes gave Sevilla a 10th-minute lead from the penalty spot.

“‘Madre mía [my mother],’ I’m considering,” Rosell added. “After every little thing we’ve accomplished and now we’re going to lose.”

But as Ronaldinho joked in the documentary: “Things could not presumably go fallacious. Midnight is after I come into my very own.”

The retired star, now 43, was referencing the headlines he made during his time at Barça for his love of the city’s nightlife, but it was an entirely different bar he was hitting in the early hours on this occasion. Picking up the ball just inside his half, he breezed beyond defenders José Luis Martí and Francisco Casquero before thumping an unstoppable effort that bounced down off the bar and over the line way past midnight.

“He dribbled, dribbled, dribbled and then increase,” remembers Toni Juanmartí, a journalist for Diario Sport who was at the game. “It was a tremendous evening and a tremendous second. I nonetheless keep in mind completely the explosion after the purpose. When he shot, it was a type of the place you are considering, ‘What are you doing …’ And then pandemonium.”

There will likely be no free pies or chocolate on the Hawthorns on Sunday morning. However, there may be a probability for somebody to jot down their identify within the Black Country derby historical past books as the 2 previous rivals meet for the primary time since 2021.