29 April, 2006 | Leave a Comment
Today started off innocently enough. I went to Fulham to get my hair cut. There are plenty of salons in my neighborhood, but a scissor wizard in Fulham was recommended to me by the woman who cut my hair in Boston. And he is amazing! (And hunky straight hairdressers don’t grow on trees, you know.)
So anyway, I’m down in Fulham, which is such a fabulous area. There’s a big football stadium around there and today, unbeknownst to me, Chelsea and Manchester United were battling for the Premier League title. Apparently, this is a huge deal. The streets were mobbed with police on horseback. Hordes of football fans were running around the streets chanting something that I couldn’t understand. The pubs were packed with men who were screaming and chanting and getting drunk. Chelsea won, but I was long gone by then. In Boston, when sports teams win major championships, at least one or two people end up dead. You don’t really have a party until the police shoot somebody.
Like most Americans, I just don’t get what’s so interesting about “soccer.” This summer is the World Cup. I can’t imagine getting too excited about it, but given that David Beckham wears nail polish and shaves his armpits, I might watch.
Tags: David Beckham, World Cup, Chelsea
Anglofille said @ 8:42 pm | london & uk |
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TJ Says:
April 29th, 2006 at 9:38 pmsoccer is fast, skilful and exciting, at its best - it’s also the world’s most popular sport.
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Americans are totally in the minority when it comes to soccer. I don’t know why Americans favor baseball, American-style football and basketball. The interesting thing is that many Americans (including me) played on local soccer teams as children. It’s a major part of childhood for boys and girls equally. And let’s not forget the over-used term “soccer mom,” which politicians and the media love. But for some reason, watching soccer as a spectator sport hasn’t caught on in great numbers.
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TJ Says:
April 30th, 2006 at 9:03 pmThe USA does seem to qualify for most World Cup Finals these days. I hope you’re watching the snooker final. He he he
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It’s hard to believe that Snooker is on TV yet again. Sad but true.
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I don’t understand American ‘football’. For one, they hardly ever use their feet (so why call it ‘football’?). I think the idea is to get the rugby shaped ball over a line, once over that line they get the team to aim for a line further away and so on. At least British football is much easeir to understand (that’s if you don’t take into consideration the offside rule), if an English player gets the ball they tend to pass it to Beckham who will then attempt a goal but miss. See, easy! I think that once you’ve lived in London during a world cup you’ll end up liking it, because you just can’t get away from it, so there’s nothing else to do but enjoy it.
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I don’t understand American football either. I just see it as a bunch of neanderthals tackling each other. I’m not really into sports, but I prefer to watch baseball or basketball. I’m sure the World Cup will be unavoidable this summer, so I look forward to seeing what all the fuss is about.
