No overstating how huge Barça-Chelsea matchup is

	When Ronaldinho and Barcelona take on Chelsea, it's merely two of the most powerful teams in the world slugging it out. Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

LONDON -- I've got a ticket. A golden ticket. It will get me into Chelsea-Barcelona on Wednesday night.

Just thought I'd let you know, because I'm so giddy about this that I have to let everyone know. I'm like a little boy again, running through the streets, high on joy. I've already told everybody else I know -- and more than a few people I don't know.

I told my brother (his response: "Huh. You're flying Air India?"), my weekend-warrior soccer buddies ("We hate you"), my downstairs neighbor ("Chelsea? You mean over on the West Side?"), the customs agent at Heathrow ("You lucky bastard!") and my mom ("Oh, well, that'll be nice"). Now I've told you.

I've got a ticket to Chelsea-Barcelona. Eat your heart out, Charlie Bucket.

I got it from an old high school buddy, Keogh, who, oddly enough, grew up playing the other football. The wrong one. He redeemed himself with his musical taste -- the Cult dominated the stereo during our after-curfew pizza-and-beer banquets in the dorms. Still, he was a Neanderthal. We pitied him.

Then he broke his neck. Literally. He showed up on campus in September of our junior year with one of those erector-set halos screwed into his skull. Personally, I think that was the beginning of the healing process. The injury didn't slow him down. In fact, his usual energetic goodwill, something between a retired politician gunning for a Nobel Peace Prize and Dennis Hopper's character in Apocalypse Now, actually seemed to expand. You would've thought he had lost his virginity rather than gone headfirst into a shallow river. (Maybe he had, with some erector-set fetishist. I never thought of that till just now.)

Anyway, Keogh moved to London a few years ago. Now he holds season tickets for not one but two London clubs: Chelsea ("bought 'em pre-Roman, thankyouverymuch") and QPR. He occasionally muses aloud why he didn't play the beautiful game back in high school. Wisdom just comes late to some, I guess, but it comes. For all intents and purposes, his gridiron psychosis is in remission, and now it's to the point that I called him when I was searching for tickets to this Wednesday's Chelsea-Barcelona Champions League clash of the titans.

Furthermore, he's not quite as giddy as I am because he's been to games of this magnitude. I haven't. I've never been to Stamford Bridge. I've never been to a Champions League match. I've never seen the world's two most expensive players on the field together (Andriy Shevchenko and Ronaldinho). I've never seen two teams, both at the top of their games, facing off head-to-head with so much at stake. And now I'm going to do all of these things.

God, I'm as excited as I was going to see the Guns n' Roses-Metallica 1992 co-headlining tour. Who's better? Who's got their A game going? Who's going to bring the passion and the power? It could end up with both sides blowing everyone's mind or something going sadly down in flames. (If you're a Metallica fan, you'll get that. If not, for shame.)

This is without a doubt the most anticipated match of the group stage. Remember, these two teams have locked horns over the past two seasons, both times in the round of 16, with each team coming out on top once. Now, finally, UEFA did whatever it was it had to do to ensure that these two -- assuming they both escape the group -- won't meet until the final.

What makes this match so intriguing this year is that Chelsea, two-time defending English Premier League champions, has been built to win the Champions League, adding Michael Ballack, Shevchenko and Ashley Cole this year. But things aren't going so well, are they? The Blues have dropped points in the league here and there -- including a loss to Middlesbrough -- and may have lost both of their top keepers for Wednesday's game. Hey, José Mourinho, I'm available, though I'm not great on balls into the box.

Barcelona, on the other hand, is flying high after thrashing UEFA Cup holder Sevilla 3-1 last weekend, as Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi turned on the style. Oh, boy. If Ronaldinho is turning on the style, that doesn't bode well for anyone in blue on Wednesday night -- especially if Mourinho gives me the spot between the pipes. But then just Monday we found out that Juliano Belletti will miss the match with an injury.

That news hit the wires within seconds of its discovery, because every tidbit of information is like a morsel of chocolate dropping from the tinfoil wrapper. It's worth something. Every player is headline stuff when a match of this grandeur comes along.

Which is why it's like a trip to Wonka's factory. There is mystery, controversy, the beautiful and the sublime. There are unfathomable riches to be had. Just think, the combined transfer-fee value of the teams could run a small island nation.

And all it takes to experience it is a little sliver of paper. A ticket.