FOOTBALL

ok
i'm not really into sports
well, watching them anyway
i think participation is way better than spectating (its my blog and i will mangle words, phrases, grammar, form and conjugisms as i please, thank you)
anyhoo
the other night i was in bed and asleep before 11pm for the first time in, oh...
3 years
it had been a long productive day and i'd earned my early slumber
at precisely 11pm i was awakened by the sound of cheering
but it was like dolby 5.1 surround sound cheering invading all the windows in the front and back of the apartment
being in a nocturnal-transitional state my first thought was that there was festival that was occuring on the port in front of my apartment and that i somehow failed to notice the buildup from my balcony
it sounded like a large local team just won a game of tug-of-war
the cheers continued sporadically as i lumbered out of my cozy haven
i shuffled over to the balcony doors and saw that the parking lot all along the port was full
about this time the honking begun
honk, honk, hooooooooooooooonk

honk,honk,hoooooonk,honk,hoooooooonk,honk,hoooooonk,honk,honk,honk,
honk,honk,hooooooonk,honk,honk,hooooonk,honk,honk,honk,honk,
hooooooonk,honk,honk,hoooooooonk,honk,hoooooooonk,honk,honk,honk,hoooooooooonk
till about 2am
every jerk with a car out that night had to share their joy with everyone within earshot
so what happened was france beat spain and made it to the quarter-finals of the world cup
soccer, known in these parts as football (except in ireland), is a BIG deal here
the world cup is an even bigger deal
like the olympics it takes place every 4 years and unlike our beloved world series of baseball, it actually involves the world
this year it is hosted by germany
i believe the enthusiasm was especially vigorous because of a little football history
8 years ago the world cup was hosted by france
they went all out in paris
president chirac even went as far as building a whole new stadium for the event
i guess the other 4 werent good enough
even the parisians were nice
ok, thats impossible but what was possible and did become reality was the french team becoming the champions of the world
in football
soccer
whatever
for the next 4 years these snail eaters would not shut up about their athletic prowess
allez les bleus! allez les bleus! (go blue!(the team color))
so
when the next 4 year football freakout (hosting shared by japan and korea (duh, south of course)) occured, the french were well revved up for another dashing display of pedial ferocity
much to the great dismay of the entire country they proceeded to have their behinds handed to them, losing the first three games and winning a miserable plane ride home to a very disappointed country
imagine that
you let your whole COUNTRY down
ooftah
so this year they're back in it
they're up against brazil
personally i dont think they have a chance
brazil is one of the best teams in the world
obviously
they also have arguably the best player in the world
ronaldinho
he is amazing
like i said i'm not into sports but this guy...
heres a short video
another little tidbit of world cup gossip is about the ball
we're all, more or less, used to this old classic or some fancy version of it

well, i dont know if the germans felt they needed to live up to their engineering reputation or if addidas just needed to sell more shoes by flaunting innovation but this is the new ball the world got

i agree, doesnt really look like its worth much gossip but tell that to the goalies
apparantly the aerodynamics of this thing is causing a big hubbub among the guys in charge of stopping it
its taken a few decades to adapt to the "curveball" (introduced by the brazilians, of course, in the 50's)
but this thing wobbles
i dont know
thats what they say anyway
goalies are a bit of a whiney breed so we'll just have to wait for some more solid evidence