Euro 2012 kicks off on Friday June 8 and ends July 1. It will be played
in Poland and Ukraine. Europe is famous for its support of soccer, or football
as it is coined in that part of the world. The favorites to win the tournament
are Spain and Germany who battled in the final of the last edition where Spain brought glory to their country
courtesy of a solitary Fernando Torres strike.
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| Spain squad that won EURO 2008 and WC 2010. Photo by articularnos.com on Flickr |
I will be supporting France as I am a Brazil
fan, but of course they are a South American team so they do not participate in
the European Cup. I do not really love any particular European team, but I
believe France are underdogs for the tournament and they have a great squad
from their goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to their main stars Frank Ribery and Karim Benzema that could bring the cup
back to France.
There is fear that things could go wrong in
this tournament, however. Italian forward of Ghanian decent, Mario Balotelli, claimed that if he is racially abused he will
“walk off the pitch.” Racism is strife in Poland, but Balotelli, who has
suffered severe cases of racism throughout his career, seems fed up with
tolerating the continued abuse. He also recently said in an interview that if
fans, or anyone else for that matter, through bananas at him that he will
“kill” them.
On a sporting level, this is a great event that
brings many people together from across Europe. You will witness people singing their
national anthems, chanting their favorite players’ names, and tears of joy and
heartbreak; all in one tournament. It should be a great spectacle of football.
Hopefully there will be no racism or anything that would tarnish the beautiful
game. I would love to have been able to travel to Europe to witness this major sporting event. Only a few days until it all begins!
I like how you were able connect soccer with culture! You really can connect anything with culture. I don't really follow all this soccer stuff, but i found your post interesting. Good job!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I see you are really interested in football. also love football. Its my favorite sport, and I'm definitely going to be watching the tournament.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite team is Spain, because I really like the way the play. They have aggressive, play making midfielders and good finishers. Another reason I like Spain is because half their team is made up of Barcelona players and they are my favorite club team.
Like you, I also hope the tournament doesn't have any racism and is played in a clean and fair manner.
May the best team in win.. in Europe of course.
Thanks Fadia!
ReplyDeleteLet me just say in the nicest way possible that I really dislike Barcelona! However, Spain are a good team and their style of play is definitely attractive. It is going to be a fun tournament to watch. All the groups are tough.