Nightly, many of us here have gathered at the Nadi (arabic for "club") where we've payed our 5 Shekels ($1.25 CDN) received our inclusive can of coke and settled in with the locals to watch the World Cup matches on a 4 meter by 4 meter outdoor screen. While in Holland last week I made the mistake of wearing my Argentine soccer jersey (a souvenir of my trip to Argentina). While waiting for the bus in Haarlem, someone drove by and yelled something at me. I instantly knew why and I quickly recoiled wondering if Holland was scheduled to play Argentina that day. I changed shirts and checked and while they weren't playing each other, they WERE in the same group.
The Argentina - Holland game took place a few nights ago and I watched it with my jersey on, beside a man named Muhammad whom I had met earlier that day in the cell phone store. Muhammad had asked me who my team was, I told him Argentina (leaving out my indifference towards soccer, typical of Canadians) It turned out he is also a fan so he then gave me a ride back to my apartment in his truck, decked out with, sure enough, a large Argentine flag.
Palestinians, it should be noted, generally cheer for the underdog. Not surprising that a people under a brutal and sustained colonial occupation would do so. But this support has it's limits: In a game a few nights ago between the crowd favourite Ghana and the Czech Republic. Ghana scored a goal that had the Nadi jumping. That is until the striker who had scored celebrated his goal by pulling out an Israeli flag from his sock. Turns out he plays regularly for a Tel Aviv club. Needless to say, Ghana quickly became the West Bank's least favourite team.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/ghana/5092762.stm
1 comment:
That's a funny story Mark. Saro and I were swept into the fever in Spain. In their second game against Tunisia, Spain was down 1-0 for a while, and apparently in soccer, being 1-0 is really bad, I guess because they score less than in say, hockey. Anyhow, I was on the street when Spain finally scored, twice, and it was insane. You could be anywhere in the city, even in your bathroom or in an attic, and still hear the noise.
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