Futball

Sunday afternoon and I have my TV choice between golf, tennis, NASCAR, poker, baseball, animal Frisbee competition and futball. Yes, yes I could read a book or heaven forbid finish that pesky paper I wrote about yesterday but I opt for the European Championship Final in futball between Germany and Spain.

Ninety minutes of non-stop activity this game ended in a 1-0 victory for Spain. The Scottish announcer, first name Adrian, narrated. He came out with such verbal nuggets as, "I know you're lapping this up. I'm so glad you could join us," called one player the "Peroxide Bombshell," called the Turks the "Cardiac Kids from Turkey" which I thought had been trade marked by the Cleveland Browns, and the player who scored, "tucked it into the corner of the old onion bag."

Poor Germany was "again the bridesmaid."

If you've noticed, soccer is the global sport. If you've read "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer you are aware of the importance of this game around the world. But not so much here in the USA. Not much action I've heard people say. Just teams running up the field and down the field, repeated until the final whistle. Although, think about it, there is something to be said for anyone who can run for 90 minutes especially while being chased by angry folks from another country shouting who knows why and calling you who knows what.

There was great security at this game today. Security personnel placed about four feet apart around the sides of the field and nearly three dozen additional in the goal areas, all facing the crowd. I don't know what ticket prices were but I do know that sometimes you volunteer to be an usher at a venue so you can get in free but here you couldn't watch the game. You had to keep your eyes on thousands of fans dressed in Halloween type get-ups. Surely their mothers did not see them leave the house. Oh wait, some of the most colorfully dressed were my age. If you read the above mentioned book you will note how the population of the world decreases after some soccer games and not in a 'natural cause' kind of way. Thus the watchful eye of security.

In Spain a major electronics manufacturer promised that if one bought a big screen TV to watch this match and Spain won, he would refund half of the purchase price. He's going to be out a pretty penny on this one.

I'm not thinking anything very profound about this except to ponder if our cultural arrogance has prevented us from joining with the rest of the world around this sport. Perhaps we like action and injury too much. Although with the death rates around the sport of futball we might feel right at home.

That's what I think about it.