Boston Braves president reflects on dream trip to Spain

Meeting soccer superstar Lionel Messi ? playing against former members of Spanish elite clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona ? touring the legendary Camp Nou stadium ? it’s all in a week’s work for the Boston Braves.The Braves, a senior soccer team that plays its home games at Manning Field, traveled to Spain last month to meet and play against former members of Real and Barca. The Braves’ president, Lynn businessman Spiros Tourkakis, is awed by the journey.”It was phenomenal,” Tourkakis said. “Especially what Barcelona did to us (as hosts). It was something incredible.”Twenty members of the Braves, along with 10 guests, traveled to Spain during the first week of April. The average age of the team is between 49 and 50 years old.”Overall, we’re in good shape,” said Tourkakis, who is 58.Underscoring this is the team’s performance in its three games in Spain. While the Braves lost 11-4 to a team that included alumni from Real, they rebounded for a 6-1 victory over another team, El Santo Bernardo FC, and a close 2-0 loss to a team of Barcelona alums.”We had our chances to tie or even win,” Tourkakis marveled of the Barcelona game. “It was the best game in our career. Better than I expected.”The journey began at Barajas Airport in Madrid, with some team members flying in on March 31 and others on April 1. Tourkakis flew in from Greece, where he was visiting his mother. The team, which was founded in 2001, is familiar with international travel to play alumni of renowned soccer teams, having visited such countries as England, Portugal and Germany.While Tourkakis does not speak Spanish, he has three Spanish-speaking players: Carlos Muniz, who is from Madrid; Ricardo Elias, of Mexico; and Jose Bisbe, of Chile. Bisbe and Tourkakis are both goalies, but Tourkakis said, “I let Jose Bisbe play most of the time.”On April 3, the team headed to Santiago Bernabeu stadium for a morning matchup with a Real Madrid-affiliated squad that included two current professionals in their 20s and the rest, including recently-retired pros, between 33 and 38 years old.”Oh my God, we couldn’t keep up,” Tourkakis recalled. “They were incredible. They would beat the (New England) Revolution easily.”That evening, the Braves watched Real Madrid shut out Galatasaray, 3-0, in a Champions League quarterfinal match.The next day, the team went sightseeing in Madrid and played Santo Bernardo in what Tourkakis described as “a much different story. They were younger than us, more like us, amateurs.”Tourkakis said, “We matched up well. With us, we don’t play regularly. It took some time, but every game we got better and better and better.”With a victory under their collective belts, the Braves went on a 6-hour bus trip from Madrid to Barcelona, stopping in Zaragoza on the way.After arriving in Barcelona, the Braves were received by Ramon Alfonseda, a former Barcelona star and the president of the Barcelona alumni. It was not his first time meeting the Braves; he had attended a team celebration in Lynn this past November.The Braves stayed at a Marriott about 500 yards from the historic Barcelona stadium of Camp Nou. On Friday, April 5, they played a team that included Barcelona alums.”We had some great opportunities,” Tourkakis recalled. “We could have actually cut the lead, or actually tied the score.”These professionals are not easy to play against. They can play the game with closed eyes.”While most of the Braves were on the field, a few got a chance to attend the first-team practice of Barcelona and meet Barca’s superstars, including Lionel Messi, Dani Alves and Cesc Fabregas.”It was under high security,” Tourkakis said. “You need a special permit. We let a couple of our people go and watch and meet.”The Braves as a team could not go because the practice coincided with the game, and the events were 10 kilometers apart.That afternoon, the Braves and Barcelona exchanged speeches and gifts at a combined lunch and dinner that went into 6 or 7 p.m.The next day, five Braves membe