When the World Cup starts today, I urge you all to enjoy it like the rest of the world.
Take a chair, table and radio out to the patio, have a glass of wine and listen to the game. Go to a bar that is showing the matches and act like your life depends on every ebb and flow of the game.
If you need to get a new cell phone, ask that the rep at the store light up a cigarette while he or she is explaining which plan is best for you.
Okay, that last one doesn’t have anything to do with soccer. But it will make you feel like you’re in Europe, where everyone smokes everywhere – including the mobile phone shops.
I had heard about the world’s obsession – every other country’s obsession, that is – with soccer. And didn’t understand it until I experienced it first-hand while living in Granada, Spain.
Does Europe have soccer fans? No, it has soccer worshippers.
If I wanted to know how the Real Madrid game was going, I didn’t need a television. I would just walk down the streets of the city and listen for the sounds of cheers or jeers escaping open apartment windows or the doorways of bars. The first loud cheers of the game, followed by chants of “Hala Madrid!” meant Real 1, La Liga opponent 0. No scrolling SportsCenter Bottomline necessary.
Unfortunately for us all – even the non-soccer fans – the U.S. will not get caught up in anywhere near the excitement that will span the rest of the globe.
During normal, and in comparison to the World Cup, inconsequential games, international soccer fans already are nuts. Case in point, I attended a game in Seville, Spain between Sevilla and Valencia – the eventual seventh and fourth place teams in the Spanish Liga that year. The stadium was packed and the crowd generated a constant roar of chants throughout the entire game.
Later during my stay in Spain, I was sitting in Madrid’s Hard Rock Cafe eating lunch (I know, how culturally adventurous of me) when I was distracted by yelling and some quick movements outside the window next to me. I looked outside, where I saw people – adults – chasing at a full-out sprint the Real Madrid team bus down the street.
Would you chase a bus carrying the San Francisco Giants? The Yankees? The Lakers?
I don’t know. But I think the World Cup is the perfect excuse to be the completely rabid sports fan that isn’t usually acceptable in the United States. Think Mark Cuban after an espresso.
Me? I’ll do my best. I’ve never gotten riled up about a World Cup before. But I’m still curious about getting to know this international obsession with soccer.
