My World Cup addiction started in 1994. That was the year the world's best invaded the United States and everybody was talking about Thomas Brolin, Gheorghe Hagi, Hristo Stoitchkov, Romario, and Roberto Baggio. Or at least I imagine everybody was. You see I wasn't in the States in June of '94 - my family was taking advantage of my Dad's sabbatical by spending six months in Australia. While I was disappointed about missing the chance to go to a match, I couldn't really complain. I was in Australia, after all! My solution was to get up at 5:00 every morning to watch a match and a half before school every day. I fell for the passion of the Nigerians, the professionalism of the Swedes, the precision of the Dutch, and (of course) the underdog determination of the Americans. And the great matches... Italy v. Ireland, The US v. Brazil (an overtime match that my mom, bless her, let me skip school to finish watching) , Brazil v. Holland, Bulgaria v. Germany, and Brazil over Italy in the final.
It was all over for me - I was hooked. But while I was overseas for my formative world cup experience, this year was my first chance to enjoy the world cup while living in a real soccer crazy country. You can walk down the Vaci Utca in Budapest and literally not miss a minute of play because every cafe and restaurant has the match playing. Little coffee shops who look like they're barely scraping by suddenly have 64 inch plasma screens hanging up outside! Last week the Czechs embarassed the US, while I watched on a giant screen in the main square of Budapest with hundreds of other people. My students could talk about nothing else the next day.
I've just spent the morning watching Andrei Shevchenko remind the world he's one of the best in the world and can carry the Ukraine to the second round by himself if he has to. With all the color, pageantry, and excitment of the players and fans, it's the most exciting sporting event in the world (with apologies to March Madness). I can't wait for the knock out rounds!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Glad to know you`re alive. U.S. v Italy: I`m not gonna lie, I was a bit disappointed with all the shirt-pulling. Who do we think we are? But the worst was when the electricity cut right near the end of the game. Pedro threw a fit! It came back on for the anticlimatic finish, fortunately. You think Hungarians are soccer-crazy? Matt, you should spend some time in Honduras; we`ll show you crazy (except we don`t have a national team playing in the World Cup, so my argument just died).
Post a Comment