Euro2004

[angledge]

The Euro2004 football championships started last Saturday. I have watched more TV since Saturday than I did in the previous nine months in this country. And, after watching a half-dozen matches, I have concluded that, for the European nations that have joined together in the EU & can no longer act militarily against one another, football has become a war substitute.

• The best game of the championship so far was Sunday's brilliant match between France & England. Now, surely those two countries have a lot of history, but living in Scotland added another angle. Since Scotland's team did not qualify for Euro2004, they have to content themselves with cheering on any & all of England's opponents. Hating England is a mass participation sport for many Scottish football fans. Naturally, they were overjoyed when England blew a 1-0 lead in injury time & ending up losing 2-1.
  
• Ruud Van Nistelrooy, star striker for the Netherlands, invoked 60-year-old memories of the Germans' occupation of their smaller neighbor during World War II by saying that yesterday's match versus Germany was "not just about football history, it is about real history and what went on 60 years ago."
  
• And in preparation for tomorrow's match with England, Switzerland has decided to give voodoo a try. A cutout figure of England's team captain, David Beckham, has been printed in dozens of Swiss newspapers & football fans are being urged to stick "nails, needles, and staples" into the effigies. WTF??

Comments

[azure-dragon.livejournal.com]

Being English and living in Wales means I'm constantly getting mocked by my Weslh colleagues after that match... :P

[angledge.livejournal.com]

"Getting mocked", while unenjoyable, is certainly better than "getting involved in a 100+ person bar brawl", which was nearly my fate on Sunday night. The scene was The Crags, an enormous sports bar located a wee bit too close to the main UofE undergraduate residence halls, which were still full of post-exam hooligan wannabees. Things got really, really tense for a few minutes after France's go-ahead goal, because the crowd was split fairly evenly between England supporters & Scottish anti-England, France supporters. But happily, everyone seemed content to scream insults & the situation eventually wound down.

[azure-dragon.livejournal.com]

Thankfully the pub I was watching the match in contained largely old men, and while old Welsh men cheering when France scored and booing at England might be annoying (or amusing, if you want to look at it that way) at least it's not dangerous. Thankfully the anti-English feeling in Cardiff is confined mainly to rugby, which I don't care so much about.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Ah, sports. Creating hooligans all the world over. I'm glad US Baseball and Football and Basketball teams/fans do not, in fact, have the monopoly on insanity. Heh.

[katieledge.livejournal.com]

Sunday was just horrible (not that I actually watched it prior Luxemborgish commitments kept me busy but I had phone updates). However, you couldn't argue with last night's score (3-0 against Switzerland). My housemate, Jim was actually in Portugal for the England- France match and said that the atmosphere was amazing and the French fans remarkably gracious in victory and as bewildered as the English.