With the World Cup nearing its conclusion, there aren't a
lot more opportunities to gain new experiences in watching the tournament. I've watched most of the matches from the
comfort of my living room either alone or with my dad, but I was still able to
find some more exotic viewing locales and people to watch with. Perhaps you can experience a few of them this
weekend, or at least keep them in mind for 2018.
1. Half Asleep
sitting at an airport bar
This was the perch I had found myself in for the group
fixture between Uruguay and Costa Rica, in Chicago's Midway Airport on my way
home from school. The game was only
playing in bars, so my dad and I set up in one and ordered an endless stream of
cokes for fear of the indignity of actually being asked to leave an airport
bar. After a sleep deprived finals week,
the cokes were enough to keep me awake, barely.
At least enough to look up every once in a while and see the replay of
Costa Rica scoring yet another goal while wondering what had happened to
Uruguay. Perhaps it is fitting that in
this most inauspicious of places I would witness both the beginning of Costa
Rica's utterly unexpected quarterfinal run and a preview of Uruguay's
lifeless(ie, Luis Suarez-less) defeat against Colombia. I can't have been in a great state of mind at
the time, since I remember deciding for a few moments that Uruguay would win
the tournament based entirely off of Edinson Cavali's threatening
demeanor. As it turned out, he had more
bark than bite, or at least less bite than Suarez. He had fewer goals too. I followed up this match by sleeping through
most of England-Italy. I don't think
England fans will be too upset with me. Overall
I can't recommend the airport bar as a viable viewing area.
2. Watching Penalty
Shoot-outs with your mom
There's a large camp of football fans who hate penalty
shoot-outs. If you're English, it's
practically a requirement. But they do
set the heart racing, even if you have no rooting interest in the match. And it's inevitably heartbreaking, as it forces
the players to be perfect; each tiny miscue here is a soul-crushing disaster. The
pain of defeat is magnified tenfold and its ending will result in more
congregated grown men crying then you will see on any other occasion. There have been a record-tying four
shoot-outs in this World Cup, and I'm pretty sure that my mom has been present
for all of them. And somehow, all four
times she's ended up pulling for the team that ended up losing. Or maybe it just feels that way, since she's
particularly quick to sympathize for the runner up in a situation where
sympathy already comes easily. It's a
tough spot with my tendency to harden up when a team I like but am not
officially supporting loses. My mom
inevitably makes me second guess my own empathy. An experience unlike any other.
3. Small TV with a
spotty signal in your dad's office
Had it been any other match, I probably just would've
forgone it and enjoyed my day out in the city.
But this was US damn it. And by that
I mean the U.S. of course. One of the
best efforts by one man during the tournament.
One of the worst by a team. But
I've written about that. As you might
guess, the venue did not exactly improve the viewing experience. The TV was a bit on the small side but more
importantly very high near the ceiling, meaning you had to crane your neck up
to watch. The thing was tied to some
kind of central server or cable box, causing the image to skip every couple of
seconds. Then there was the slightly
awkward environment of a legal office lounge.
As best I can tell, law is a profession that's white collar enough to
allow good leeway to its employees, but demanding enough to keep the pressure
on. As one of them noted, the game started too early to justify going home to
watch it, but too late to stay at the office afterword for a full day's worth
of productivity. So the lounge is filled with lawyers who feel comfortable
enough taking a break to watch the football, but just uncomfortable enough with
the work in the back of their minds that everyone just kind of stands in
subdued silence. A silence only to be
broken with a resounding groan at Chris Wondolowki's Wonder-Shank at the 90th
minute.
4. Any game with your
sarcastic Scottish uncle
I think it is a profound shame that so many in the world
watch this tournament but relatively few have the privilege of a sarcastic
Scottish uncle to watch with. He has the
cynicism of an English fan but none of the bitterness associated with actually
having a team enter and fail in the tournament.
This, combined with being a virtual encyclopedia of 40+ years of
football knowledge, makes him a treat for any viewing experience. He'll know the club of all major players in
the field, plus their various short comings.
He'll have hilarious anecdotes about footballers and World Cups past as
well as depressing ones. With him, they are
like a wacky Venn diagram with a huge crossover. And just like your Scottish dad, he has a
near infallible sense for when a team is soon to score.
5. That
Brazil-Germany game with your brother
My brother doesn't watch sports all that often, but one
factor never fails to entice him viewership: humiliation. Perhaps this should concern me, but
considering I rarely see this mean streak in his daily life I just kind of roll
with it. It is appropriate that Germans
coined the word schadenfreude, the
only word I am aware of that expresses joy in another's misery, seeing as they
were responsible for the best implementation of said word in recent
history. I don't know if I have the
words for Germany's win asskicking annihilation(?) of Brazil. It's almost certainly the most devastating
loss in the history of football and may well be in the history of sports. So what is there left to do but laugh? I could not help but feel a bit giggly from
my bro's horrified yet contagious enthusiasm for what he was witnessing. Although,
I imagine that wherever and with whoever I watched this match it would've left an
impression. It certainly has on
Brazil.
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