Switzerland vs Czech Republic 
0 - 1
Portugal vs Turkey 
2 - 0
Okay, everybody, this is it! It's finally here! Um, I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to blog this. I didn't really think this all the way through. I'll probably be stopping by the fan mile (70,000 fans and giant screens), which isn't exactly a laptop-friendly environment, so whatever I'm putting in this space will have to be made up after the fact. Pictures? Eye-witness accounts? Grade A football analysis? I don't know! It'll be a surprise!
For now, suffice it to say that I'll be rooting for Switzerland and Portugal. (Döner may be more delicious than Ronaldo, but Ronaldo's deliciousness is more available.)
Update: So, half of my wishes came true. I must confess I didn't know that Switzerland lost until just now, because I only saw the opening minutes of the game, but the Portugal win I viewed from the fan mile! There were tons of closeups of my Euro Cup boyfriend, which was much appreciated, the game itself was pretty exciting, and the atmosphere really helped it along. Here are some pictures:
On our way down to the fan mile, we (my friends Hannah and Alice and I) came across this weird blow-up house of giant proportions, which promised us the "Euro Experience." The poster outside used some strangely threatening language to describe what awaited us inside, but it was free, so we decided to brave it anyway. I'm really, really glad we did. Among other things (a trial of the Euro 2008 game for Xbox 360, which I was terrible at, quizzes about the Euro, which, after all of my research in the past few days, I was surprisingly good at, etc.) was this:
The Henri Delaunay Trophy. This is what it's all about. I'm unclear on whether this is the original or a replica. I'm tempted to say a replica, but there was a very official-looking man guarding it, so maybe it is the real one. In any case, it's no Stanley, but it's still pretty cool.
The tent also contained framed versions of all of the 2008 teams' jerseys, and it's official. Croatia's is totally the best. I saw tons of people wearing this jersey today (not surprisingly, since Croatia is playing in Vienna tomorrow) and I'm not really sure why, but I think I may be in love with it. If I see someone selling one, I may just have to buy it. In the adjoining tent, there was a movie of all the past Euro Cup finals games going on, and it got us so pumped that we wanted to see some football right that second! Luckily, we could, because the Switzerland/Czech Republic game was about to start.
After negotiating our way through the ridiculously strict security check-point, we made it to the fan mile. Here are all the people sitting in Rathausplatz watching one of the big screens. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about twenty minutes and then we went to go meet some people for dinner, but it was really starting to fill up as we were leaving. We finished dinner just as the first game was finishing, and tried to guess, based on the levels of excitement of people wearing Swiss/Czech colors how it had ended, but there didn't really seem to be many of those fans around. By the time we got through security again, the game was just getting started, and the mile was definitely more packed with fans than before. We did a little wandering, though, and somehow found a near-deserted corner, with practically our own personal screens to watch.
The first half ended scoreless, thanks to a goal for Portugal being called off for offsides, but it was still entertaining. Cristiano Ronaldo must have done some research on what I like to see in my favorite players, because he got a free kick in a prime location, and ended up hitting the post. Did Yo-Yo share that tip with him? By halftime we were ready to get a little more in the center of the action, and decided to try to push our way into the main crowd in Rathausplatz.
That's the Rathaus, or City Hall, which had the largest of all of the screens, as well as a stage for some really horrible halftime acts, set up in front of it. The crowd was pretty well split between supporters for both teams, though I doubt any actual Portuguese were there. Most of those cheering for Portugal were probably Austrians cheering against the Turks. There's some complicated background there that, as a foreigner and an outsider, I don't really feel comfortable getting into, but suffice it to say it has to do with immigration and some sieges that happened a few hundreds of years ago. I felt kind of bad for all of the Turkish fans going home without even being able to celebrate a goal.
I have to say, I kind of dig the European football way of calling matches: spare and sparse. Sure, I love RJ's flare as much as the next self-respecting Sabres fan, but sometimes it's nice to be able to just listen to the game and the stadium without obtrusive interruption. Since there was only one guy working the game alone, there was no forced, inane conversation filling any and all dead space. And since soccer is a much slower-moving sport than hockey, there's really no need to keep up a fast-paced run of game calling. A good majority of the call tonight was just the commentator saying the name of whoever had the ball, and then the name of whoever he passed it to, and so on. It created a very natural connection between the fans and the game, I thought. Like sports viewing at its basest level. Then again, maybe I only appreciated it because I couldn't really understand what was being said anyway. I like to think my German is pretty good, but my football vocabulary is pretty lacking, and the commentator had a pretty thick Austrian dialect which I'm still not quite used to.
This was the extent of the crowd behind me. All throughout the game the crowd was very well behaved. Of course there was drinking and (gasp!) singing and chanting, but everything seemed clean and safe. It was only as we were trying to leave that things got a little pushy and hairy, but even then it wasn't that bad. We did pass some sort of showdown between some Austrian and Croatian fans on our way out, apparently in preparation for tomorrow's game, in which there was no actual physical contact, or (as far as I could tell) actual words, involved. It was pretty bizarre, actually. Out of a lack of a common language, they resorted to blowing soccer-ball-shaped whistles and directing emphatic arm movements at each other to express themselves. At least this is what I gather to have been going on. I only got to witness it for about three seconds before I was carried on by the crowd toward the exit. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable night, and I look forward to getting back to the fan mile soon! But for now, sleep.
For now, suffice it to say that I'll be rooting for Switzerland and Portugal. (Döner may be more delicious than Ronaldo, but Ronaldo's deliciousness is more available.)
Update: So, half of my wishes came true. I must confess I didn't know that Switzerland lost until just now, because I only saw the opening minutes of the game, but the Portugal win I viewed from the fan mile! There were tons of closeups of my Euro Cup boyfriend, which was much appreciated, the game itself was pretty exciting, and the atmosphere really helped it along. Here are some pictures:
On our way down to the fan mile, we (my friends Hannah and Alice and I) came across this weird blow-up house of giant proportions, which promised us the "Euro Experience." The poster outside used some strangely threatening language to describe what awaited us inside, but it was free, so we decided to brave it anyway. I'm really, really glad we did. Among other things (a trial of the Euro 2008 game for Xbox 360, which I was terrible at, quizzes about the Euro, which, after all of my research in the past few days, I was surprisingly good at, etc.) was this:
The Henri Delaunay Trophy. This is what it's all about. I'm unclear on whether this is the original or a replica. I'm tempted to say a replica, but there was a very official-looking man guarding it, so maybe it is the real one. In any case, it's no Stanley, but it's still pretty cool.
The tent also contained framed versions of all of the 2008 teams' jerseys, and it's official. Croatia's is totally the best. I saw tons of people wearing this jersey today (not surprisingly, since Croatia is playing in Vienna tomorrow) and I'm not really sure why, but I think I may be in love with it. If I see someone selling one, I may just have to buy it. In the adjoining tent, there was a movie of all the past Euro Cup finals games going on, and it got us so pumped that we wanted to see some football right that second! Luckily, we could, because the Switzerland/Czech Republic game was about to start.
After negotiating our way through the ridiculously strict security check-point, we made it to the fan mile. Here are all the people sitting in Rathausplatz watching one of the big screens. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for about twenty minutes and then we went to go meet some people for dinner, but it was really starting to fill up as we were leaving. We finished dinner just as the first game was finishing, and tried to guess, based on the levels of excitement of people wearing Swiss/Czech colors how it had ended, but there didn't really seem to be many of those fans around. By the time we got through security again, the game was just getting started, and the mile was definitely more packed with fans than before. We did a little wandering, though, and somehow found a near-deserted corner, with practically our own personal screens to watch.
The first half ended scoreless, thanks to a goal for Portugal being called off for offsides, but it was still entertaining. Cristiano Ronaldo must have done some research on what I like to see in my favorite players, because he got a free kick in a prime location, and ended up hitting the post. Did Yo-Yo share that tip with him? By halftime we were ready to get a little more in the center of the action, and decided to try to push our way into the main crowd in Rathausplatz.
That's the Rathaus, or City Hall, which had the largest of all of the screens, as well as a stage for some really horrible halftime acts, set up in front of it. The crowd was pretty well split between supporters for both teams, though I doubt any actual Portuguese were there. Most of those cheering for Portugal were probably Austrians cheering against the Turks. There's some complicated background there that, as a foreigner and an outsider, I don't really feel comfortable getting into, but suffice it to say it has to do with immigration and some sieges that happened a few hundreds of years ago. I felt kind of bad for all of the Turkish fans going home without even being able to celebrate a goal.
I have to say, I kind of dig the European football way of calling matches: spare and sparse. Sure, I love RJ's flare as much as the next self-respecting Sabres fan, but sometimes it's nice to be able to just listen to the game and the stadium without obtrusive interruption. Since there was only one guy working the game alone, there was no forced, inane conversation filling any and all dead space. And since soccer is a much slower-moving sport than hockey, there's really no need to keep up a fast-paced run of game calling. A good majority of the call tonight was just the commentator saying the name of whoever had the ball, and then the name of whoever he passed it to, and so on. It created a very natural connection between the fans and the game, I thought. Like sports viewing at its basest level. Then again, maybe I only appreciated it because I couldn't really understand what was being said anyway. I like to think my German is pretty good, but my football vocabulary is pretty lacking, and the commentator had a pretty thick Austrian dialect which I'm still not quite used to.
This was the extent of the crowd behind me. All throughout the game the crowd was very well behaved. Of course there was drinking and (gasp!) singing and chanting, but everything seemed clean and safe. It was only as we were trying to leave that things got a little pushy and hairy, but even then it wasn't that bad. We did pass some sort of showdown between some Austrian and Croatian fans on our way out, apparently in preparation for tomorrow's game, in which there was no actual physical contact, or (as far as I could tell) actual words, involved. It was pretty bizarre, actually. Out of a lack of a common language, they resorted to blowing soccer-ball-shaped whistles and directing emphatic arm movements at each other to express themselves. At least this is what I gather to have been going on. I only got to witness it for about three seconds before I was carried on by the crowd toward the exit. All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable night, and I look forward to getting back to the fan mile soon! But for now, sleep.
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