I have been following the World Cup fairly closely this year, since it was being held in Germany and my family is of German origin. Naturally, I have been supporting the German team throughout the tournament.
As you may be aware, my team got to the semi-finals, but they lost to the Italians in extra time earlier today. I cannot say that it is breaking me up -- I am not that much of a fan of Germany. In any event, I identify myself as a Canadian, not as a German, and we have not been in the World Cup since our one visit in the 1980s.
I do find it interesting to watch the truly dedicated fans. You know the ones -- they wear the jersies, fly the flags on their cars, and die each time someone scores against their team. I swear, you could hear the Italian fans from two miles away when Italy scored twice in extra time.
And well they should -- the Italians were clearly the better team and they deserved to win. (I am not sure the same could be said of the Portuguese in the game against England, but that is another story.) Since my team will not be in the Cup final, I have the luxury of cheering for whomever is playing best when the final game is played, so I guess I have the best of all possible worlds.
