World Cup Fever

An interview with Pierre Finkelstein about World Cup fever:

What are your favorite teams:
USA, France, England, Holland, Sweden, Japan

Least favorite?
Argentina & Brazil

Which team jerseys do you have?
USA, France, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Brazil ( a gift but I never wear it)

Favorite player?
Johan Cruyff of Holland
Goalies in general because that was my position in high school

When did you start to like soccer?

At age 14, it started.  The first one I remember was 1974 in Munich.  Germany beat Holland and it was a major upset.  I loved Johan Cruyff so it was devastating.

I was so into soccer by 16.  This prompted me to make a pilgrimage to  Europe in the summer with 2 buddies and visit soccer stadiums.  Summer is off-season so most of the stadiums were empty.  We just wanted to see them.  Haha, instead of touring museums and sights, we visited soccer stadiums — it was crazy.  The stadiums were usually in the dodgy side of town and often not in the major city itself.  Every once in a while, we’d catch a mini-tournament.  We went from Belgium to Amsterdam (famous Ajax stadium) then to Germany to visit Dusseldorf, Cologne, and Munich.   Then to Copenhagan to sweden and finally to Austia (Rome).    We travelled by train and camped at night.  With the Euro Rail pass, sometimes we would go a long distance by train overnight just to sleep in a bed.  The trip was 2 weeks long and I spent $500 at the most.

In retrospect, I’m surprised that my parents allowed such a trip.  They didn’t know where I was or how to reach me.

World Cup season is filled with bittersweet ecstasy.  So many games of top Soccer matches.  I only wish I could watch every minute.

World cup is terrible for my productivity — but it’s only once every 4 years.   For these 3 weeks, I run my days around who’s playing and when.  In the past, I’ve gone so far as to buy a TV for a jobsite This year’s the best so far with the iPad at my side — streaming live action.