f r e s h s t a r t

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Cup

Being in Europe during the World Cup has given me a whole new appreciation for the love that Europeans have for soccer. Which I am now calling football, because everyone else finds our word for the game to be funny.

When I was in London the TV room of the hostel was packed, some Aussies were running around with the Australian flag around them like a cape, and there was some general rowdiness. Sadly, they lost to Italy.

I was in France the night that France beat Spain. During the boat cruise on the Seine there was a large group from Spain that was all of a sudden cheering and waving flags (I know I always carry a Spanish flag onto a riverboat, don't you), so we thought they had won. After leaving the boat we figured out that Spain had scored, but that France had won. People were in the streets shouting Viva la France! We shouted it back to them as we biked back across town.

The first game I actually watched from start to finish was the France-Brazil game the other night. Now I understand why everyone is so excited when someone scores. It only happens once or twice a game.

The Austrians were pretty happy to see Germany lose last night. Although I think the final is in Berlin this weekend, a group of people here are going to the fanfest in Munich. I might pass on that, but there is no way I'll be able to avoid the presence of the game. And I like it.

08:34 2 comments

Comments:

the u.s. seems to be the only place in the world that doesn't get caught up in the madness. guate was equally obsessed, even though there was only one central american team to even make it to the world cup, and costa rica lost pretty quickly (i think). of course it could be that as it was all getting started, we were just getting on the gringo trail - so the bars had more europeans than guatemalans in them. we watched about 10 minutes of the u.s. - czech republic game and had enough.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:03 AM

Update your blog! I've been flipping through the Travel Channel incessantly to no avail; you're not on there! Don't you know your mother worries about you?

Wait, I'm not your mother...

# posted by

Brian : 11:39 PM