GO GERMANY!

This may well be my last post before I go bury myself crying if Germany loses today, so I've decided to make this soccer-themed. Also, because I was asked to blog about soccer, since it's essentially my existence...

me: I want to destroy all vuvuzelas

Cooper: yes.

me: they have these annoying horns here too that the people outside insists on blowing every time

theres a goal scored

outside the office that is

Cooper: ha

ha

it's interesting

how this is so much bigger than the olymics

me: I m

ean at least you know when to check the score

Cooper: in terms of fandom

me: duh

people care

its hard to get people excited when its a different sport every day and the only thing uniting them is

your country

soccer is the worlds most popular sport, most people watch it already outside of the tournament, no

one really watches the olympic sports normally

most of them anyway

and sin

ce the athletes change every event its hard to keep track and root for them, so you just root

for your country

but in soccer you get really attached to a team of 11 players, you learn their names and how they

play and really care, and they are human, not just people dressed in your country's colors, which is

how I often feel with the olympics

Cooper:

haha

so passionate laura :-)

me: also

in the olympics, yeah you can say you won the most medals at the end, but really there's

so many gold medals given out that the end prize doesn't seem that great. like when the olympics

are over, does anyone care who won the most that much, no you forget. soccer everyone

cherishes the hope of winning at the end, and losing is horrible, in the olympics you can say oh well

there'll be an

other event tomorrow. soccer is more dramatic and a roller coaster ride.

Co

oper: haha

you should blog about this :P

And hence begins this post. I love this sport so much because the passion it unleashes. Unlike any other sport, despite how much I love tennis and winter sports, there's nothing like cheering at a goal. There's raw excitement, people coming together, people all sharing a love for something, something that everyone can understand. Soccer is not always beautiful, but it is always exciting. And being in Europe during a World Cup is all-consuming. Yesterday, as I was reading the many facebook status updates about the US losing and all I could think was that now people can go back to not pretending to truly care about soccer. It's not about just cheering for your country like in any other sport, it's not like the Olympics. It's not a patriotic thing. There's something ineffable about soccer, something I can't explain why I love it so much.

I suppose the simplest way to explain how much soccer has consumed my existence lately is outside of the matches. Reading the papers daily, even the English ones to prepare for today, the songs playing on my ipod 24/7, the jumping out of my desk at work ("so, are you following the World Cup?"- random person we met. "oh God, don't get her started or this will take hours"- fellow intern), and any one who's had even a five minute conversation with me about it leaving it saying 'wow, you're a REAL fan'. I wish I could write more, but I must get decked out in my German flag outfit (ok, so this time I'll actually wear shorts underneath I think), so I'll leave you with my favorite Go Germany! songs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5DyjAIU9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeF-qzxdl0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYXYvHPkGU&feature=related

and of course...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosJRIPbw7k

GO GERMANY!!!! BEAT ENGLAND!!!!!!!!

If nothing else, my little brother is optimistic...

And of course the psychic octopus is optimistic too.