Football fever

In April 2008, I was in London for work and I went to a pub for dinner. Manchester United and Roma were on the telly for a Champions League knock-off game. The pub patrons were all very much into the game, except me. I’ve never really watched much football and I was reading a very interesting book at that time. Half time came and it struck me that the atmosphere in the pub was like the pubs in Vancouver when the Canucks play an NHL play-off game. Then I realized I really should put the book down and watch the game, too. This is so British, so London, and I should be present in the moment and take advantage of the opportunity to experience something so local.

So I watched the second half with great interest and I found myself really enjoying it. I didn’t know the rules, although it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on, and I could not hear the commentators but it didn’t seem to matter. I was engrossed in the game I was watching.

This World Cup finals, I’ve been watching many of the games. Brazil is fun to watch and so is Argentina. Portugal’s goal extravaganza was very entertaining, although at 4-0, I felt really bad for the Koreans. This is like watching hockey during the Olympics when the level of play is so good that you can’t help but enjoy watching, no matter who’s playing. Too bad the World Cup and the Olympics come around only every four years. Would be great to have them every year... but I’ll probably get fired because I’ll never get any work done!