[jdl22]

The most amazing sports experience I've had was rooting for Sevilla to lose a game against Oviedo.

For those who don't follow European soccer, the bottom three teams in the first division get relegated to the second division. Sevilla were sitting in last place all but mathematically eliminated (they had to win their last 5 or 6 games and have all kinds of [censored] happen when they only won a few games in their first 32). At this point Sevilla were playing Oviedo who were sitting third to last (in the relegation spot). Just above them in the table were Betis, our archrival.

The fans were looking for Sevilla to lose, throwing the game if necesary in order to get Betis relegated, or at least help. When the match started Sevilla controlled things. They were knocking the ball around. When they moved forward anywhere near the Oviedo goal the fans were pretty much all whistling like mad (keep in mind that the Spanish whistle instead of boo). Fairly early on Oviedo scored a goal when a cross came in and the Sevilla defender lowered his head which allowed the forward to head the ball in. At this point the fans went crazy. Oviedo later scored two more goals making it 0-3. Sevilla fairly quickly rebounded and got two goals back making it 2-3. Once again they continued to control the ball and play and whenever they got close the fans would whistle. We played like we were up by a goal, just knocking it around and holding onto the ball. It ended 2-3 to the delight of both the home and away fans. Throughout this time Betis was playing in Mallorca and getting thrashed. As is customary when a goal is scored in the league they flash an update on the scoreboard. Betis lost 4-0, the crowd going crazy for every one of these goals.

At the end of the season Betis ended up being relegated. They were behind Oviedo by exactly 3 points. I have no doubt that if Sevilla wanted to they would have won the game. I'm not sure how the tiebreaker went but if Sevilla had won Oviedo and Betis would have been tied and only one would stay up.