Futbol Around The World
Sunday, July 11th, 2010Futbol, as Spanish speaking countries call it, is the national game in Mexico and all Latin American countries and Oaxaca is no exception. Americans call it soccer, I think mostly to distinguish the game played with a round ball from the game played with an oblong pointy one that refuses to roll on the ground in a straight line. Apparently the word “soccer” was the original name for the game in England where it was invented but that’s another story you can find on the web.
My kids played soccer in grade school and my oldest banned me from the games for being too loud and embarrassing the heck out of him. So here in Oaxaca even I have found it difficult to avoid the mania. But the audio of the vuvuzela I downloaded onto my iPhone was pretty sick. I watched Serbia and Ghana…then expecting to see the Americans play (a game they won) SKY TV immediately replayed the Serbians! What was that all about?!! I won’t even attempt to speculate.
The restaurants in the zocalo (plaza) have TV monitors facing the sidewalk cafes where mostly young people huddle together…those who don’t go to the bars to watch anyway or depending on the time of day or night the game occurs…and many of them are European language students. Yesterday Uruguay played Germany. The Europeans were in the minority and rendered pretty mute by the locals urging on Uruguay…the underdog. A table of young French girls were oblivious…tentatively tasting the black mole with barely a drop on the tips of their knives. It was fun watching the looks on their faces. Either they were famished or they loved it because afterward not a bit was left on the plates.
My son, the chef at the American Club in Hong Kong, is napping. Tonight (or rather tomorrow) the final between Spain and Holland will air at 2am. He will open the restaurant…featuring free hot dogs and hamburgers…for those intrepid souls who will stay up. No fun watching by yourself on the couch in front of your home TV…side-line coaching with friends and a little testosterone thrown in adds much to the pleasure.
Zoe