Football (soccer) championships

The European soccer championships are going on all this month, at different stadiums around Poland and the Ukraine. Every day there are two games going on TV and everyone is watching. I know very little about soccer, and even I have watched games at the biergarten, at the kleingarten, and outside the ice cream stand. Every bar has them playing on the TV, and on Wednesday I even saw a bunch of guys with folding chairs on the sidewalk, watching on a little TV at the newsstand kiosk .

There is really no American equivalent. March Madness might be the closest, or the World Series, but not really. The Olympics have some similarities but there are so many different sports that the excitement is a little diluted.

The European championships happen only every four years (in between World Cup years), and include a heavy dose of nationalism to make things interesting. These countries have been at war with each other for centuries. There is a lot of baggage there. Now (thankfully) they just face each other on the soccer field and rub the other players' faces in the dirt.

Here in Hannover there are (obviously) mostly Germany fans, but there are also England fans, Spain fans, Ukranian and Polish and Italian and Dutch fans. Most people who know a little about the game have filled out a bracket with their friends or coworkers and put 10 or 20 euros in the pot to see if they can pick a winner. Brian did his bracket with the help of some high school students. I don't know enough to do a bracket. I'm more interested in the fanfare, the face paint, the players taking off their jerseys at the end of the game... you know, that kind of thing. I also like to cheer for the underdog countries. You know, the ones that are less successful, less developed, receiving Eurozone bailouts, etc.
 
On Monday night we watched Ukraine vs. Sweden at the biergarten, which was confusing because both countries are blue and yellow. I figured out that the crowd was heavily in favor of Ukraine when they started to shout "U-kra-in-a" over and over. They were having so much fun that I even started to cheer along. Besides, the Ukraine is definitely an underdog in that matchup.

Here are some photos:

This is the Waterloo Biergarten

Sweden fans on the left, Ukraine fans on the right

John, Andrew, and Katya as it started to rain. Great summer weather we are having here in Hannover...

The Dutch are already out of the tournament. England plays tonight, so does the Ukraine. I can't keep track of which team is playing against which, but I know if I want to I can watch the game at the biergarten or outside the ice cream stand, where the real fans are.