EuroCup 2008

I’m going to throw this out there: I don’t like soccer. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the fact its non-American name desecrates the title of our greatest sport, but in the end it’s just not something that appeals to me. I sort of view soccer the same way most girls view any sport – that is, it’s just a silly thing that guys get worked up about for no real reason.

Anyway, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention to European sports (and if it wasn’t continuously bombarded into my face, I would be in your ranks), the EuroCup 2008 is a giant soccer tournament held between all the European nations. Well, the European nations that qualify for it – England didn’t make it this time around, so pretty much every other country here is laughing at them. I think it’s played every four years, partly to offset the fact the World Cup is played every four years and there’s a lot of time in between wherein nothing really happens. Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, this time around, Switzerland is the host country; more specifically, the park half a block from our apartment is the site of one of the "fan zones", meaning we get all sorts of hooligans roaming our streets.

But, it could be worse. Depending on how you feel about hooliganism, you might say Geneva dodged a bullet; the teams playing in this fair city are teams that nobody bothers traveling to watch. We have Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and I think Czech Republic, whereas other Swiss cities have teams such as Greece or Holland playing.

Again, why am I telling you this? Well, one of our friends had the bright idea to go to Bern this past Friday night, to go see the France / Holland game. Not actually go into the stadium, but just to the "fan zone" there, to "soak in the atmosphere".

Well, let me just tell you – I have never been to a sporting event more insane than this. Holland ended up winning, which was great considering we were surrounded by about 50,000 screaming Dutch fans. As Bern isn’t exactly a teeming metropolis, it got crowded very quickly. I would use words like "chaos" or "pandemonium", but I think they’re overused, and what was going on in Bern was well out of the ordinary. There were people climbing parking signs, gutters, port-a-potties; we ran across two impromptu brass marching bands, one of which we followed for a couple blocks because, well, it’s a lot of fun following a marching band. I have to say it was really cool after having lived in Switzerland for almost a year now, to see the complete craziness that Bern became on this one night. The party was still going strong a couple hours after the match, although we had to catch the midnight train back to Geneva.

So, my advice to anyone who actually does like soccer is, follow the Dutch fans. Obviously the English are also crazy like this, as are apparently the Scandinavian countries (that is, thousands upon thousands of them travel to watch their sports teams in international events). Considering Bern is much closer to France than Holland, it was interesting that there were easily 50 Dutch to every Frenchie (or clogs vs. frogs, if you want to use the local slang). No exaggeration – it was almost all Dutch.

The Dutch rule.

The only unfortunate thing is that I didn’t get to see much of Bern. They apparently have a bear-pit (with live bears), so I’ll have to go back another time. Looks like a fun place though.

Next week: Soph’s back!