6/29/08
Will you be watching todays Euro2008 game? Gillespie: Yeshttp://pd.thestate.com/sp?eId=17&ecId=14...y%2F446607.htmlA little variety has never hurt anyone has it?
I grew up in the South and was weaned on college football, so I understand the notion of soccer — that prissy, elitist, minivan-moms-and-orange-slices sport — offends many of my brethern simply by its existance. It’s a “guy thing,” too. If you love women in short shorts, drink beer from the can and love cars with eight cylinders, “futbol” is not your glass of cabernet.
You know what? I once thought that way, too. No more.
Euro2008 comes to its conclusion today — the championship game between Germany and Spain starts at 2:45 p.m. on ABC — and if you equate these rugged, all-out battles with a Saturday morning at the playground, you have never seen the real thing.
Those who complain that soccer is “boring” because of the dearth of scoring — relative to, say, a video game —probably don’t have the insight to follow, say, a 2-1 baseball game dominated by stellar pitching.
Maybe those folks would be better served spending their disposable sports income on — oh, I don’t know — pro wrestling or monster truck rallies.
I wasn’t always a fan of European/international soccer. When you live in America, where “exotic” means Swiss cheese on your burger, you often get a pretty provincial view of the rest of the world, and I was no different.
But in recent years, I have been converted by the quadrennial World Cup. If you think fans at Pittsburgh Steelers or Chicago Bears games are passionate about their teams, you need to see a home crowd at Wembly Stadium in England during a Premier League game — and that’s just a warmup to the World Cup, when crowds show up to scream, cheer and wave their nation’s flags.
Any college coach who uses cliches about football being akin to warfare — especially with Iraq and Afghanistan going on — should be smacked in the mouth. But international soccer? People have been known to die, and that’s just in the stands.
The stars of Euro2008 are as highly paid, universally fawned over and electrifying as anything the NFL, NBA or MLB can produce. If you allow your prejudices to take a day off, if you listen to the anthems being sung by the crowds and feel the electricity —afterward, if you still don’t believe the “beautiful game” is worth watching, you probably think vanilla ice cream is hot stuff.
Me, I like a little variety, an import instead of a Bud. When September arrives, I’ll be following football. But right now, bring on the Germans and the Spanish. It’s a small world, after all.
Will you be watching todays Euro2008 game? Spear: Nohttp://pd.thestate.com/sp?eId=17&ecId=14...y%2F446613.htmlUntil there is more scoring, there is nothing to see
Well, I understand the European Championships will be decided today. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Spain will face Germany in Vienna for all the marbles. You knew that, too.
ABC has the coverage, live, at 2:45 p.m. with a lead-in from an MLS battle featuring the Los Angeles Galaxy against D.C. United. Of course, you knew; you planned your Sunday around the action.
What sport, you say? Sorry, I thought everyone followed what most of the world calls ‘football’ and this country calls ‘soccer.’
Pardon the disinterest, but the European soccer championship in this country matters like baseball’s poorly named World Series in the rest of the globe.
I have been assured repeatedly that soccer can be a fascinating game, but every time I check the scoreboard, one goal seems to be enough to win.
A favored strategy, I have been told, centers of scoring the first goal and playing defense by freezing the ball thereafter.
Don’t get me wrong; I love a low-scoring baseball game — but not every day. I salute great defensive teams in basketball, but I appreciate the shot clock after yawning through some stall-ball games.
On the plus side for this championship fray, I have been assured by a soccer loyalist that the Germany-Spain clash could take on Cinderella overtones.
The nations’ teams have met seven times through the years and the Germans have earned four wins and two draws. A Spanish victory, then, would be like Fresno State’s success at the College World Series.
Alas, Spain striker David Villa, who scored the only hat trick in the tournament, is sidelined with a pulled hamstring. That adds to the Cinderella theme.
To carry the possibilities another step, this is the first time in 24 years that Spain has reach the final of a major tournament. Shades of the Miracle Mets of 1969 — a team that, by the way, won the World Series.
Somehow, though, the possibilty of “excitement” escapes me. But I am not inflexible on the subject. Provide me with some offensive, and we can talk. Until then, I will pass.
