Soccer is the Religion of England

From the middle of June until the end of September, basically the entire summer, Andy is out of town working during the week. This means instead of having a boring Sunday of sitting around watching movies I have probably seen a millions times and can recite verbatim, we are making the most of our Sunday making it fabulous Funday!

In the UK football, or as we Americans prefer to call it soccer, is a religion. The entire country goes nuts when England plays and since this year is the World Cup England seems to have turned into a crazy mess of red and white. Football is the topic of conversation, even the Prime Minister googley eyed while talking about their chances of winning and who he thinks will score the most goals. Football is the news, and I mean the only news! It is what shows on TV day and night telling from who the players are talking with, to what the players are eating, to who they are sleeping next to, to what color underwear they will wear on the big day. Then you have the England flag being flown outside every shop, restaurant, and car window in the country. It seems in England the only time the white flag with a big red cross is being flown, is when the football team is out kicking a ball around some big green field. When it was St George’s day, a national England holiday, the flag was not seen anywhere. Actually, I didn’t even know it was an English Holiday until Andy informed me of the patriotic holiday. There were no flags, people dancing in the street wearing their red and white while singing English songs, drinking beer ending the night with sparkling red and white fireworks exploding patriotism in the sky! I suppose I have spent too many years with the 4^th of July! I supposed in England when their football team plays it is their 4^th of July. While the football team prepares to play in South Africa, the entire country seems to go patriotic. Every store has a flag flying out side their door and England cups, napkins, balls, umbrellas, and any other piece of merchandise you can stick the name England on, is ripped off the shelves to be used or to decorate their houses, gardens, bodies, or cars. Even the thrift stores had their displays decorated in red and white with ‘Go England’ signs hung for all to see when they walked by. It was all just very strange… All this for a few guys who get paid millions and millions to put a round ball through some netting. I sure didn’t understand, but I also am not one to miss out on a party… And this country has turned into one massive party!

           

In the sprit of Sunday Funday, along with joining in on the patriotism of the locals, Andy and I, with a few friends, hopped on our bikes and rode down to the beach for a little fun in the sun followed up with some English footy. The big game against Germany started at three in the afternoon, which gave us a good few hours of playing on the beach soaking up the rays. We lazily floated on blow up rafts in the ocean while watching the boys play paddleball on the shore. And when 2:30 rolled around we, along with practically all the other beach goers, rolled up our towels, put away our beach toys, and crowded into the one and only beach bar to boo Germany while sucking down beer and praying England pulled through with a miracle win.

            After about 3 beers and a score of 3 to 1, I couldn’t help but laugh at the atmosphere in the rooms. The people that didn’t storm out of the bar after the third goal by Germany and stayed to watch England go down and be knocked out of the World Cup, wore the most sad and pathetic faces I have ever seen. It was as if England had lost the war and had been stripped of their pride and dignity. It was as if their country had let them down and their lives were collapsing down around them. I think I may have even seen a few grown men cry. As a matter of fact, I actually think the entire country had tears in their eyes. I tried my hardest not to laugh out loud and offend these poor soccer-loving fools, but it was just too funny. It was too much to watch these people get so emotional over 90 minutes of ball kicking. And even more amusing how fast some of those flags were pulled down and that patriotism was tucked away until the next time England plays! I guess I still have a long way to go before I completely understand this foreign culture and am transformed into a true Brit!