Czech Republic vs Portugal 
1 - 3
Switzerland vs Turkey 
1 - 2
Round 2! The games have been split into the winners and the losers in this round, and I'm going for Portugal and Switzerland once again. Lena's already told me that she's going to be with me on Portugal in this one, so it won't be two against one this time anymore. Actually, it looks like we're getting a big group of kids, mostly from Mac, together for tonight. Look for an update later, as usual.
Update: We have our first really meaningful results! If I followed the Austrian commentary and the meaning of the point system correctly, after last night's games Portugal is officially in to the quarterfinals and Swizterland is officially out. Yay! And, sad! The next game between Czech Republic and Turkey will be really intense, since it will determine who gets to join Portugal in the next round. Even though everything didn't really work out the way I wanted it to, last night's games were still pretty exciting.
Lena had class yesterday evening, so she ended up not being able to join us on the fan mile for either game, but Hannah and Alice came with Mark and me. We three girls were all going for Portugal, but Mark said he couldn't, because they play too dirty. So then the Czechs spent the game stomping on opponents' hands and elbowing and karate chopping in the face. (Someone smacked Ronaldo in the mouth, and I thought of my mom when I squealed "Not his face!") Don't get me wrong, the Portuguese team gave as good as they got, but there was absolutely no higher ground in cheering for the Czechs when it came to clean play. There was also this frighteningly large striker on the Czech team, who seemed to be there for no reason other than to be frighteningly large. At one point the Portuguese goalkeeper was picking the ball up, and this guy comes running up and jumped, literally, right up to him. Since he knew he couldn't touch the goalie, I'm not sure what that whole display was about, but Hannah and I found it kind of terrifying. We also found it fun to use the one phrase we know in Czech, which we learned from her Eastern Europe phrasebook when we went to Prague: "Mám vši!" It means "I have lice!" It would have been more useful, trash-talking-wise, to know how to say "You have lice!" but since it would be weird to go to the doctor and tell him he has lice, Hannah's phrasebook couldn't provide us with that. So we just had to make do with pretending that all of the Czech players were saying that to themselves, whenever the camera showed one of them.
To get to the actual game, it was a more or less comfortable win for Portugal. Their first goal was an even bigger mess than the Swedish goal from the other night. The Czechs had multiple chances to clear the ball, but they kept fucking it up, and the Portuguese had multiple chances to score but they kept fucking it up, until finally the goalie let it roll away from him right to a Portuguese forward, who finally scored, but only after it ricocheted off a defender first. The Czech team answered a few minutes later, potting a header off of a corner kick, and for the first time ever in this tournament we had a game tied at something other than zero. During halftime we had to endure some really awful host guy trying to do I don't know what. It was especially painful when he tried to speak English for no apparent reason, and I found myself longing for the uncoordinated cheerleader/dancers and monotonous drummers that filled halftime of the first game. The start of the second half was very welcome indeed. Just as I was starting to think that my boyfriend Ronaldo wasn't playing too well (and they hadn't been showing as many closeups of him as in the first game, which was disappointing), he scored, on a real blistering shot from right outside the top of the box. Portugal secured the game with a few minutes to go, after a strong chance for the Czechs left their defense out of position. It resulted in a two-on-goalie chance that was easily put away.
Anyway, tonight the games stop being nice and start getting real. Germany and Austria are both playing (though not against each other) and this time I'll actually be in Vienna. I can't wait!
Update: We have our first really meaningful results! If I followed the Austrian commentary and the meaning of the point system correctly, after last night's games Portugal is officially in to the quarterfinals and Swizterland is officially out. Yay! And, sad! The next game between Czech Republic and Turkey will be really intense, since it will determine who gets to join Portugal in the next round. Even though everything didn't really work out the way I wanted it to, last night's games were still pretty exciting.
Lena had class yesterday evening, so she ended up not being able to join us on the fan mile for either game, but Hannah and Alice came with Mark and me. We three girls were all going for Portugal, but Mark said he couldn't, because they play too dirty. So then the Czechs spent the game stomping on opponents' hands and elbowing and karate chopping in the face. (Someone smacked Ronaldo in the mouth, and I thought of my mom when I squealed "Not his face!") Don't get me wrong, the Portuguese team gave as good as they got, but there was absolutely no higher ground in cheering for the Czechs when it came to clean play. There was also this frighteningly large striker on the Czech team, who seemed to be there for no reason other than to be frighteningly large. At one point the Portuguese goalkeeper was picking the ball up, and this guy comes running up and jumped, literally, right up to him. Since he knew he couldn't touch the goalie, I'm not sure what that whole display was about, but Hannah and I found it kind of terrifying. We also found it fun to use the one phrase we know in Czech, which we learned from her Eastern Europe phrasebook when we went to Prague: "Mám vši!" It means "I have lice!" It would have been more useful, trash-talking-wise, to know how to say "You have lice!" but since it would be weird to go to the doctor and tell him he has lice, Hannah's phrasebook couldn't provide us with that. So we just had to make do with pretending that all of the Czech players were saying that to themselves, whenever the camera showed one of them.
To get to the actual game, it was a more or less comfortable win for Portugal. Their first goal was an even bigger mess than the Swedish goal from the other night. The Czechs had multiple chances to clear the ball, but they kept fucking it up, and the Portuguese had multiple chances to score but they kept fucking it up, until finally the goalie let it roll away from him right to a Portuguese forward, who finally scored, but only after it ricocheted off a defender first. The Czech team answered a few minutes later, potting a header off of a corner kick, and for the first time ever in this tournament we had a game tied at something other than zero. During halftime we had to endure some really awful host guy trying to do I don't know what. It was especially painful when he tried to speak English for no apparent reason, and I found myself longing for the uncoordinated cheerleader/dancers and monotonous drummers that filled halftime of the first game. The start of the second half was very welcome indeed. Just as I was starting to think that my boyfriend Ronaldo wasn't playing too well (and they hadn't been showing as many closeups of him as in the first game, which was disappointing), he scored, on a real blistering shot from right outside the top of the box. Portugal secured the game with a few minutes to go, after a strong chance for the Czechs left their defense out of position. It resulted in a two-on-goalie chance that was easily put away.
As I think will always be the case on the fan mile, the second game was more enjoyable, maybe just because the atmosphere was more lively. The Turkish fans were already showing up at halftime of the first game, amassing with their flags and painted faces and marching through the crowd chanting and singing. It was pretty cool. By the time the game started, there was also a strong contingent of Swiss fans in attendance, so we were caught in the middle of kind of a chanting war with "Türkiye! *clap clap clap*" coming from our left, and "Hop Schwiez! Hop Schwiez!" from behind us. It was pretty cool. Meanwhile, it was raining so hard in Basel, Switzerland that the players were practically underwater. The field surface was a mess, and it looked like trying to play soccer on a Slip-N-Slide. Players would go down and wouldn't stop sliding for a good twenty feet. It looked like great fun (when I used to play soccer I loved playing in the rain), but also really arduous and exhausting. The way the ball kept skidding and sometimes coming to a complete halt reminded me of the wonky ice conditions at the Ice Bowl, and eventually it resulted in a goal for the Swiss. Both the Turkish goalie and a Swiss forward were trying to get to a ball at the same time when the goalie slid, missed it, and then ended up way out of the play. Another Swiss forward got possession of the ball near the goal line, and centered it around a Turkish defender, where it stopped dead in a puddle in the middle of the goal. From there it was an easy tap into the goal. Despite the drenched conditions, Switzerland seemed to dominate the first half, but in the end only had that one goal to show for it. In the second half it seemed to have stopped raining, and somehow the field seemed dryer as well, like someone had wrung it out. It was the that the Turks started taking over the game. Their first goal was a real beauty, a long, long centering pass from the wing up to the front, and then a clean header in. From then on the game seemed destined to end in a tie, with both teams fighting hard to stave off elimination. At one point the Swiss seemed sure to score, getting a three-on-two, and a pretty good shot, but the Turkish goalie made a really great, slippery save to keep his team in it. In the end, it was the Turks who scored, with only about two minutes left in stoppage time, to kill the Swiss dreams of making the quarterfinals. It was a really dramatic finish, and all the Turkish fans, of course, went nuts. For my part, I couldn't help but be disappointed. I tried to get myself to root for the Turks, really I did. Their fans were so into it and I have no reason to dislike them (Döner is still delicious!), but, for whatever reason, I was really attached to the idea of Switzerland winning and was really sad to see them get knocked out.
Anyway, tonight the games stop being nice and start getting real. Germany and Austria are both playing (though not against each other) and this time I'll actually be in Vienna. I can't wait!
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