Football fever
The World Cup is fast approaching and football fever has gripped my team. The Francais organised a football match at an artificial pitch near work a couple of weeks ago, with all the junior guys in my team and a few guys from other teams playing. Myself and two other girls went along to watch and be 'cheerleaders'.
The same boy is now organising a global football match at our global team offsite this weekend. It will be the first time the Americans, Asians, Europeans and Australians will be meeting. The boys have very politically correctly invited girls to join the match(es), but I'm not quite sure if I want to. On one hand, it's no fun being left out of the games, and I would really like to join (although I will be execrable at footie). On the other hand, I don't want to spoil the fun for the boys. The fact is, the game will be less fun for the boys if they can't play rough and have to tip toe around the girls. And these guys are nothing if not serious about their football.
And yet, I don't like the idea of a male/female divide over football. Although, having said that, everyone in my team—male and female—has been slowly sucked into the rising football frenzy—the football matches (locally and now globally), the score-prediction spreadsheet that has been sent around, the endless football discussions over lunch, dinner and all hours of the day, the idea that was proposed that we all chip in to buy a TV to watch the World Cup games since our floor is not yet equipped with a set, or the suggestion that we play a little World Cup jackpot which the team played last World Cup.
I don't usually follow football at all, although I always happily allow myself to be swept along by the festive spirit of the major football seasons—the World Cup and European Championship.
I have decided that this time, my teams shall be, as before, England and Italy. England because I live here now and I have affection for this little island that has taken me in. How Italy became my team is completely fortuitous. It was 6 years ago during Euro 2000, when I was with my ex, and not wanting to be a "soccer widow", I followed football to be sporting. And did I go the extra mile! I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch matches on a borrowed handheld TV with a small 1.5 by 2 inch screen, because my very uncooperative hostel did not allow us to watch the matches. Once, there was a Holland-Italy match and the boy supported Holland, so I took the other side just to be contrarian.
Unfortunately, both my teams have consistently underperformed and I wonder when I will see either raise either Cup.
But, in my predictions, after some thought (with not much expertise, admittedly) with an optimistic twist, I have Italy crowned World champions, which is not impossible, but slightly improbable. And yet, there is hope—Brazil has only ever won the title once whenever the World Cup was hosted in Europe (I am for England and Italy, but always against Brazil, no matter what, even if the Togo were playing Brazil, I would root for Togo)
My quarter-finals are as follows:
Sweden vs. Argentina, 1:3
Italy vs. France, 2:1
England vs. Netherlands, 1:2
Brazil vs. Spain, 3:1
Semis:
Argentina vs. Italy, 2:3
Netherlands vs. Brazil, 1:2
Final:
Italy vs. Brazil 2:1
Half the fun will be in seeing how my predictions fare.
The same boy is now organising a global football match at our global team offsite this weekend. It will be the first time the Americans, Asians, Europeans and Australians will be meeting. The boys have very politically correctly invited girls to join the match(es), but I'm not quite sure if I want to. On one hand, it's no fun being left out of the games, and I would really like to join (although I will be execrable at footie). On the other hand, I don't want to spoil the fun for the boys. The fact is, the game will be less fun for the boys if they can't play rough and have to tip toe around the girls. And these guys are nothing if not serious about their football.
And yet, I don't like the idea of a male/female divide over football. Although, having said that, everyone in my team—male and female—has been slowly sucked into the rising football frenzy—the football matches (locally and now globally), the score-prediction spreadsheet that has been sent around, the endless football discussions over lunch, dinner and all hours of the day, the idea that was proposed that we all chip in to buy a TV to watch the World Cup games since our floor is not yet equipped with a set, or the suggestion that we play a little World Cup jackpot which the team played last World Cup.
I don't usually follow football at all, although I always happily allow myself to be swept along by the festive spirit of the major football seasons—the World Cup and European Championship.
I have decided that this time, my teams shall be, as before, England and Italy. England because I live here now and I have affection for this little island that has taken me in. How Italy became my team is completely fortuitous. It was 6 years ago during Euro 2000, when I was with my ex, and not wanting to be a "soccer widow", I followed football to be sporting. And did I go the extra mile! I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch matches on a borrowed handheld TV with a small 1.5 by 2 inch screen, because my very uncooperative hostel did not allow us to watch the matches. Once, there was a Holland-Italy match and the boy supported Holland, so I took the other side just to be contrarian.
Unfortunately, both my teams have consistently underperformed and I wonder when I will see either raise either Cup.
But, in my predictions, after some thought (with not much expertise, admittedly) with an optimistic twist, I have Italy crowned World champions, which is not impossible, but slightly improbable. And yet, there is hope—Brazil has only ever won the title once whenever the World Cup was hosted in Europe (I am for England and Italy, but always against Brazil, no matter what, even if the Togo were playing Brazil, I would root for Togo)
My quarter-finals are as follows:
Sweden vs. Argentina, 1:3
Italy vs. France, 2:1
England vs. Netherlands, 1:2
Brazil vs. Spain, 3:1
Semis:
Argentina vs. Italy, 2:3
Netherlands vs. Brazil, 1:2
Final:
Italy vs. Brazil 2:1
Half the fun will be in seeing how my predictions fare.
1 Comments:
Haha...Soccer frenzy here in Australia as well. First time they qualify for World Cup since 1974! So everybody is really excited now, God knows if Australia is even going to get past the first round. But for their opening match against Japan, I actually placed money bet on Australia to win, as a sign of support i guess, hee. First time betting..hope i have some beginner's luck!
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vyanne, at 8:48 AM
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