Margo Orlando Littell
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Because Life Can Be Wonderful!
Friday, June 27th 2008 at 12:48pm (About 2 months ago)
Edited About 2 months ago
Last night I did something uncharacteristic: I found myself eagerly anticipating 9:30pm, when I could sit on the couch and watch ESPN2 for a couple of hours. I believe it was even I, not Andrew, who turned on the TV. The cause of such a surprising move? The semifinals for the Euro 2008, the European version of the World Cup and one of soccer’s biggest biannual events. Thursday night, Germany beat Turkey, securing a place in the finals; and last night, Spain’s national team, La Selección, and Russia competed for the final slot.
I know I’ve talked about soccer here before, but perhaps I haven’t shared with you my favorite soccer player (and for me to have a favorite professional athlete of any kind is, for those who know me well, remarkable). This player is Puyol, the Catalan captain of FC Barcelona and defenseman extraordinaire. If you watch the final Sunday night, keep an eye out for him: he’s the one with the curly, lionine mane, the one with an expression of such perpetual seriousness and gravity that you’d think he was playing to save the world. It’s rare to see him smile; yet he’s a consummate sportsman, helping opposing players up and patting them on the back after taking a fall to indicate Hey, no harm done. He is great fun to watch. I read an article a while back about the personalities of different European players, and Puyol was described as so dedicated to his club team as to be “bleeding Barça.”
Anyway, Spain won last night, a definitive 3-0 over the grim, unhappy Russians. The match took place in Austria and it rained—hard—almost the entire time; it’s definitely better to be soaked in the stands if your team winds up winning. It was even more exciting for Spain to win because now they’ll be competing in the final—the first time for them since 1984. (And the national team hasn’t won a tournament since 1964.) What’s more, they managed to win against Russia despite the fact that they were forced to wear yellow jerseys—Spanish players consider yellow to bring bad luck.
The game was rebroadcast on ESPN2, so we missed out on the over-excited, hyperbolic commentary from the announcers on the Spanish Gol TV, who celebrate every goal by shouting “GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!” at top volume, culminating with “Porque la vida puede ser marveillosaaaaa!!!!!”—Because life can be wonderful!
Tune in Sunday afternoon if you can. (And cheer for Spain.) Life can be wonderful, indeed.
I know I’ve talked about soccer here before, but perhaps I haven’t shared with you my favorite soccer player (and for me to have a favorite professional athlete of any kind is, for those who know me well, remarkable). This player is Puyol, the Catalan captain of FC Barcelona and defenseman extraordinaire. If you watch the final Sunday night, keep an eye out for him: he’s the one with the curly, lionine mane, the one with an expression of such perpetual seriousness and gravity that you’d think he was playing to save the world. It’s rare to see him smile; yet he’s a consummate sportsman, helping opposing players up and patting them on the back after taking a fall to indicate Hey, no harm done. He is great fun to watch. I read an article a while back about the personalities of different European players, and Puyol was described as so dedicated to his club team as to be “bleeding Barça.”
Anyway, Spain won last night, a definitive 3-0 over the grim, unhappy Russians. The match took place in Austria and it rained—hard—almost the entire time; it’s definitely better to be soaked in the stands if your team winds up winning. It was even more exciting for Spain to win because now they’ll be competing in the final—the first time for them since 1984. (And the national team hasn’t won a tournament since 1964.) What’s more, they managed to win against Russia despite the fact that they were forced to wear yellow jerseys—Spanish players consider yellow to bring bad luck.
The game was rebroadcast on ESPN2, so we missed out on the over-excited, hyperbolic commentary from the announcers on the Spanish Gol TV, who celebrate every goal by shouting “GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL GOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!” at top volume, culminating with “Porque la vida puede ser marveillosaaaaa!!!!!”—Because life can be wonderful!
Tune in Sunday afternoon if you can. (And cheer for Spain.) Life can be wonderful, indeed.
