During an international tournament, it requires almost as much planning to support your team at home as it does abroad. Sure, you don't need to learn the Cyrillic alphabet or get injections, but you still need to ensure you have the best seat-to-bar spot, a night bus to get home, and enough mastery of 1980s terrace hits to bluff your way through the game.
Ensure you don't invite these herberts to your BBQ
The best and worst parts of the tournaments are
the timing - summer. A few weeks after the end of a tiring season, when
wives and girlfriends want to go away, and you may fancy a few days of
cricket, tennis, or whatever floats your summer alcohol consumption
boat. But there is the temptation for the barbecue. The sweet sense of
burnt and ill cooked food, and praying for good weather.
The
fixtures for Euro 2012 became apparent in December, and thus eager BBQ
planning formed. The Sweden game was a Friday, so ideal. Would England
progress? Would the quarter final be Saturday or Sunday? Will it ever
stop pissing it down? Should one buy a gazebo while at Costco?
CarryAround - essential when it's your round
There's a lot to be said for going to the pub. The atmosphere is (usually) electric, there's the collective singing of the national anthem, and the hilarity of people who know little/nothing about football trying to blag it.
But then there's the dark side. The 2006 World Cup saw the great unwashed donning Sun-emblazoned Tommy helmets. The recent Ukraine game heard cries of 'no surrender to the IRA' and 'ten German bombers'. Someone must have lost their chip shop. It's highly unlikely that these people listened intently in history class.
Building Anglo-German relations...
Myself and regular collaborator GoW normally split the games. This year was pub, BBQ, pub, takeaway, and it worked nicely. Did we fancy going to the pub for an England v Germany semi-final? Er... Go on then.
No comments:
Post a Comment