European Sports

This has been and is an incredible summer for sports, at least for me. I know I have already mentioned it, but the World Cup in London is AWESOME! Every single pub in the city is brimming with people every match (at least up to the point England got eliminated; the crowds drastically thinned post-elimination, but there are still crowds). In addition to the World Cup, there is Wimbledon in southwest London and of course the Tour de France just started! What a summer!
Let’s begin with the USA vs. England match from a few weeks ago. This was a match I was NOT going to miss. On the same token, I did not want to be the sole American in a pub full of angry Brits crying for American blood… Luckily one of Austin’s friends is in London for the summer working at the US Embassy… If that’s not a good place to find Americans to go to the USA match I don’t think a good place exists… So a group of around twenty Americans (including a few Marines stationed at the embassy) headed to a sports bar (not a pub, sadly… and there is a difference!). Of course we were greatly outnumbered by the Limies, but what fun it was. In hindsight I am glad the US didn’t win out of a strange notion of self-preservation… All-in-all a draw was a very satisfactory outcome for all of us Yankees (as all Americans are referred to as here… sorry Dixieland!). I have tried to watch all of the matches since, but since the US and England have been eliminated, there is much less incentive to watch. Its much more amusing for me reading the British newspapers of how the British collective conscience is oh so dreadfully mournful over their pitiful displays (plural!) of football. As England reexamines its football self-image, I hope that the likes of Donovan, Dempsey, Howard and Altidor can inspire the US towards greater interest in the one sport that actually does unite the world.
Wimbledon takes place every year in the southwestern suburbs of London. Wimbledon takes about as much time to get to as work for me! My buddy and I decided that since we were here for the tournament, we had to go see some tennis (not that either of us care too much, but hey, its for the experience!). We looked into getting tickets, but as it turns out the only way for plebes such as ourselves to gain entrance to the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon was to queue (the Brits turned waiting in line into a verb! It amazing me how much an entire people just absolutely love waiting in queue!) overnight. We decided to go on a Friday around 9:30pm, and promptly headed out via tube at 10:30pm after a trip for some snacks to hold us over. Weather.com claimed that the low for the night was going to be 62 F, so we packed extremely light. And by extreme I mean not at all. We slept in an open field with nothing but the shorts and sweatshirts on our backs. London weather is something that cannot be predicted, to my great dismay as I lay huddled in a ball trying to keep warm as my neighbors (the 2300 other crazy people waiting in queue from midnight the night before) lay in tents and sleeping bags. The good thing about the weather here during the summer as that sunrise is around 4:30AM and sunset is around 10PM, so we only had to deal with the cold for a few hours before the sun came up. Once we finally got in we had a blast watching some great tennis, but unfortunately we were unable to get into the top show courts to see the top seeded players play. Either way it was a great day of tennis, Pimms and strawberries in cream (Wimbledon traditions). We made it home just in time to witness the great tragedy of USA vs. Ghana…
Wimbledon this year came with few surprises – all the usual top players took the top prizes. Great Britain had its hopes on Andy Murray, the first great home-grown tennis player in years, but right along with their World Cup aspirations went their Wimbledon dreams… the newspapers attempt to assure the public by reminding it that at least a Brit won in the Wimbledon boys doubles…
With the World Cup heading towards the climactic semi-finals and Wimbledon dying down, the only thing left is the Tour de France! Go Lance!