The Sporting Life: Eurocup 2008

Nothing alters the landscape of a city like obsession. And peasant farmers and wealthy yachtsman all over the face of Europe will be drunk as lords, glued to their television sets, screaming in anguish and in glory from bars, couches, and the streets. No Europe is not in another nationalistic war of aggression, it's just this edition of the Eurocup. When they set down their rifles, it's almost as if they start becoming truly obsessive about football, though I don't have statistics in front of me to back up one iota of this, I'm sure such sentiment makes governments dump a little more money into their national sides.

Nevertheless...
Basel, Zurich, Geneva, Bern, Innsbruck, Vienna, Salzburg, and Klenfurt will have both fanatical supporters descend on the these cities, but in the participating countries who made the cut, the obsession with sports will send people into the streets, waving banners, sometimes rioting, always letting the pressures of daily life focus into one white hot point called football. Flags waving, cars honking, fists flying, the winners are just as slap happy as the winners.

Nothing beats the energy of a well aimed kick from your hometown hero.








Let the games begin.