tonight determines Germany's sense of self-worth

I know you are all just following the European soccer cup with breathless interest (especially since so many of you love sports so much, I know). But right now we're about 3/4 of the way through Germany vs. Austria in the last game of the first round. I think if we lose this one, we're out. That would be bad. In US football championships and playoffs, you just kind of pick the team you like best to cheer for. In the European/world cups, the teams playing aren't arbitrary ones; they represent your country. It is the one time you can wave German flags and be wholeheartedly, proudly, DEUTSCH without anyone feeling guilty or worrying about anyone wanting to take over the world. (You can, incidentally, wave flags of other countries as well--the next apartments over have a huge array of German flags out the window, but also Spain, Sweden, Italy, and Croatia--although the owners of the Croation flag did take it down for a day when Croatia beat Germany.) Lots of Turkish flags, too, as Turks are the largest minority in Germany. The one time I might be conflicted would be if it came down to Germany vs. Czech Republic (which it did one year when we were in Prague--the Czech lost, unfortunately.) My dad is Czech-American.

Here's our living room: we thought it would be nice to both show solidarity and also to cut out the hot afternoon sun. It works nicely for both.



Anyway, our kids watched the first half until they had to go to bed, which I thought was really interesting, since they are not very sports-minded at all. They are, however, very German-minded, so probably it's the whole national pride thing. Even my 3-year-old is worried we might lose. The whole event is a LOT more like the Quidditch World Cup than say, the Superbowl. The fans look just like the ones in Goblet of Fire, and even the referee today looks kinda like the Egyptian Quidditch referee. And all the government guys sit up there in the good seats. You can almost imagine Fudge doing sign language and talking loud for the Bulgarian PM. (See, I can like sports--if I come to them through books first.)

I guess if all the flags are gone tomorrow, replaced by black banners, we'll know things went wrong. So far, though, things look hopeful. We're 1-0 against Austria.


ETA: Let the fireworks begin! We've won, 1-0. (Yep, there are screams outside and the fireworks really are starting. The Austrian government on TV doesn't look so happy.)