Drumroll please... it's starting! Tonight is the kick-off of the European Championship 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. The Dutch streets are bright orange, and everyone is full of expectations. You know, football is an interesting thing, as every so often either 16 (for the European Cup) or 32 (World Cup) countries seem to fall into a trance for about a month in June-July. Granted, some countries are probably a bit more into it than others - like in Brazil in 2010, they would say that the country stops when the national team is playing. The same is pretty true in the Netherlands as well.
(Note to the boys who still think that girls know nothing about football: I am about to prove you wrong).
The first World Cup I really remember was back in 1998. I recall watching the final between France and Brazil together with my sister, who for one reason or another was supporting Brazil, so as the little sister I was supporting it with her. I really could not have had any clue yet that a few World Cups later I'd be watching the games in Brazil. Back then, the country lost the match to France but won the World Cup again in 2002. And two years ago Brazil lost the quarter-final to... Holland. And where was I? On Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. Khem.
Luckily, Brazilians seemed to take it well to the loss and I could show my face again among my Brazilian network (I think the unanimous feeling was: oh well, we'll host and win the Cup in 2014 anyway). I was even interviewed by a sports journalist for a rather important Minas Gerais newspaper on the eve of the final between Holland and Spain, which I watched in a Brazilian bar, surrounded by orange-clad Brazilians. Some of them even seemed to be more dissappointed about the Dutch loss more than I was, haha. That said, maybe Brazilians were so cool about being kicked out of the competition because they could release the tension the day after the Brazil-Holland game, when Argentina lost so spectaculairly to Germany in what I believe was a 0-4 count. Rio was shooting off previously unused fireworks to celebrate - unless, of course, they secretly did so for my birthday that day, as I am such a VIP ;) (I have to note that the hardcore Brazil-Argentina competition on the football front didn't stop several kids at the school where I worked to show up wearing the Argentina football shirt with 'Messi' on the back).
Sailing off the coast of Morro de Sao Paulo in Bahia, Brazil, I took the opportunity to photograph these guys playing football on the beach - how Brazilian is that!? And not to forget that football has the reputation to work as a ticket to a better life in some (former) developing countries - I for one can't help but conjure the image of kids playing football in a Brazilian favela... Or is that an image from a movie..? It would be cool to learn more about the social value of football, in any case...
Well, for the moment my green and yellow Brazilian flag will have to stay in the closet when it comes to football, as the World Cup is not for another two years. This year, I'll be watching the Dutch games back in good old Holland, though there is just one small glitch again. Four years ago, Holland lost the EuroCup quarter-final to... Russia. You see the connection? It seems every two years I have to face this painful and awkward situation where I'm not sure who I am actually supposed to support here. And this year, the chance is quite real again that Holland and Russia might meet on the road to the Cup again, given they both come through the first round - but this time, if they do play, I'm just staying neutral, so let the best team win!
Well, in a few hours the first teams (including Russia) will be playing, and tomorrow Holland is on. I remember that in Brazil during the World Cup, I would wake up to the sound of vuvuzellas on the day of the national team's game. I wonder how it will be in Holland this year? Aanvulluh!
Thanks bunches for reading ;)
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