European Cup Soccer: An American Discovers "The Beautiful Game"

As an American, I'm a giant fan of our national pasttimes - baseball, football (the American kind), basketball, and hockey. I'm originally from Boston, so I love Larry Bird, cried tears of joy for days after the 2004 World Series, and generally think Tom Brady is hot stuff. However, when I studied abroad in Ireland in 2002, I realized that there was a sport that I'd been missing my whole life. We call it soccer. They call it football.

My friends in Ireland watched the English Premier League like it was their job. I recognized the tension on their faces, the nervous tics and roller coaster waves of joy and despair that rolled over them as they watched the games. I had felt that sort of emotion watching my own hometown teams play. However, I couldn't quite "get into" soccer in the same way. To me, it seemed like the game was just a ball bouncing randomly from one side of the field to another. Sure, it was exciting when someone scored. But that only happened a few times durng the entire 90 minutes.

Like most suburban kids, I played soccer when I was growing up. I loved the excitement of running down the field, the release of giving the ball a good kick, and the half time oranges that our soccer moms would inevitably prepare for us. But after watching soccer on television,first through the MLS and then through the Premier League, I figured that it was something that was more fun to play than to watch. I gave up.

The years came and went, and I ignored soccer to the best of my abilities. Then I married a European. A Swede to be exact. In the English Premier league, he's a Chelsea supporter. In international games, he's a Sweden supporter. Because we're both of Irish descent, he supports Ireland whenever possible. Needless to say, my life became an unrelenting stream of updates about every single bit of minutae involving "footie", as he calls it.

I ignored my husband's addiction until two years ago during the World Cup. That was when he started dragging me to bars where I was forced to watch game after game after game of World Cup soccer. That was the moment that I, too, discovered that I love "The Beautiful Game."

New York is an extraordinary place to watch the World Cup. Because there are representatives from each and every country living in this city, there's always a place to watch the games with people who care intensely about the outcome. The jersey-wearing football fans are passionate about more than just football though - they're passionate about their country. Slovakia, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago, Germany, Brazil. All the nations of the world are waiting with bated breath for the outcome of these games.

World Cup 2006 was when I discovered that soccer is more than just booting the ball around a field. Its a game about pride.

Its a game about pride in country. Patriotism and even nationalism is something we as Americans understand very thoroughly. But I think sometimes we take winning for granted. There's a certain joy inherent in the knowledge that you are a country of 7 million people with the eyes of the entire world on you. That your small nation has the ability to feel the experience, for one moment in history, of being the best in the world. That's powerful.

Heartbreak is also powerful. Sweden got eliminated in the first round of play this year. I went to a bar with a room full of Swedes on Saturday, everyone standing, their eyes hopefully turned towards the game projected on the screen above. There was heavy heads when the Spanish scored early on in the match. There was hugging and high fives when Sweden came back and tied the game. And there was bitter disappointment when Spain scored during injury time in the last fleeting seconds of the game.

Sweden was eliminated from the European Cup on Wednesday. Perhaps disheartened by their loss to Spain, they played poorly against the Russians. It was disappointing. However, what's moving about soccer, is that the disappointment is a shared experience that makes up the fabric of the cultural experience of every nation in the world. All these emotions the tears, the joy, the tension, the excitement, are shared with each and every one of your countrymen whether you like it or not.

During the World Cup, the world holds its breath as soccer fans experience the ectasy of victory and the agony of defeat. The world watches. A beautiful game, indeed.