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By
BERNARDO FALLAS It's
not every day a bunch of soccer players make a phone call to space.
Then again, it's not every day FC Barcelona, one of the best clubs
in the world, is in town. It was a much-needed change of pace for Barcelona, which is in the midst of a four-stop North American preseason tour and regular two-a-day sessions. Barça plays Mexico's Club América tonight at Reliant Stadium in the nightcap of a doubleheader that includes the Dynamo taking on the Los Angeles Galaxy in a Major League Soccer match. With fewer than 2,500 tickets remaining Tuesday night, the event is expected to sell out. Midfielders Xavi, Puyol and two-time FIFA Player of the Year Ronaldinho scrambled to grab headsets while coach Frank Rijkaard exchanged congratulatory greetings and joked with flight engineers Thomas Reiter and Jeff Williams and commander Pavel Vinogradov. "You're doing a great job," Rijkaard said from Space Station Mission Control. "This is a privilege for us." Reiter, from Germany and an avid soccer fan, proceeded to do a bicycle kick that looked more like something out of The Matrix and got a laugh from the guests. "Thomas has been practicing all day," Williams said. The visit also took the 18-time Spanish Liga champions through the mockup facility, shuttle mission control and the now-retired Apollo mission control, made famous for directing man's trips to the moon. "This is beautiful, impressing," said Argentina and Barça striker Lionel Messi. "It's just like the movies." Most players seemed to enjoy the visit and looked relaxed at one of Houston's landmark destinations, a sharp contrast from their demeanor Monday, when they arrived around 5 a.m. after playing Chivas Guadalajara to a 1-1 tie in Los Angeles before a crowd topping 92,000. Word got around of Barça's visit to JSC, and dozens of NASA employees left their posts temporarily to catch a glimpse of the team. "This is an immense pleasure, a huge sense of pride," said Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes, who accompanied the team throughout the visit and got to pose with a famous countryman, Ronaldinho. "I never would have imagined them coming here." The team presented Pontes, space station flight director Rick Labrode and the space station residents with replica Barça jerseys. NASA presented the team with a photograph of the city of Barcelona from space and a Spanish flag flown in mission STS 121.
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