World in Motion (Euro 2008)

I like football (soccer). I've always been partial to some English Premier League (EPL), ever since my father sat my brother and I down in front of his taped copy of the 1998 FA Cup final and told us with almost religious reverence of the importance of Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars in helping the Gu
Though he neglects to wear his suit jacket most of the time: the first time I saw it on was after the 1-2 loss to Croatia (no mis-counted yellow cards this time, though Bastian Schweinsteiger (yes it is a ridiculous name) was sent off for a dodgy, but-not-that-dodgy challenge), though I think it was just to hide the shame of visible sweatpatches on international telelvision.
I would have covered up.

In fact, most of the coaches are pretty well dressed. All of them wear suits (or at least shirt and pants), except the Spanish, Portugese (who looks like a squashed version of Gene Hackman-that's what someone told me and I find it potentially amusing enough to share it with you) and the German coach of the Greek team Otto Rehhagel, who spends more time on the rug on his head than on picking something nice to wear.

The matches are pretty good too. The Dutch are playing VERY well, and have won their group. The Stimmung in Germany is that the team (their time) can go all the way, and it's really interesting to see how EVERYONE is transfixed. The streets, public transport and shops are all empty, even when Germany isn't playing. You can even buy red-black-gold leis, in addition to all the usual "official" pallaver. The official chef's cookbook is alright, but not as good as that of Matthew Hayden or Glen McGrath.

There is a lot of red-black-gold around the traps at the moment, sport is one of the (very) few means which Germans can express their sense of national pride without evoking the past. Balconies and buildings (residential, not official) are covered in the national flag (though there are lots of Turkish flags as well, and a good assortment of Croatian, Polish and Russian ones too), everyone is talking about it, and all (a bit of an exaggeration) the men are wearing the national kit.
Is anyone excited about it at home: are some of you staying/getting up to watch the matches?

There is even a musical sub-genre used during these large sporting events. Each country has their own national song for the tournament. I think I've heard the German one, by Markus Stanzi. It's not very good. The press don't think so either, as they prefer to play 'Football's coming home,' which is amusing given that 1) it's an English song, written to reflect their claim to 'own' the origins of the game and 2) even if the Germans wanted to send football 'home,' they couldn't, 'cos England didn't even make the final.
They also play New Order's World in Motion (the English song for the 1990 World Cup) and the Austrian song 'Fieber'(not to be confused with the Peggy Lee song of the same name) a bit, though there's lots of chanting. And
I think that EURO2008 is better off without England in it. For one, Cristiano Ronaldo is officially the most preened person in the stadium, an unthinkable feat in the presence of the English WAGS. And David Beckham.
Go Sweden and Germany: let's hope your failures in Belgrade bring success in Wien!
I hope Sweden are listening to Hero, I think it's very motivational.
Tally Ho.