Eurocup 2008

So, for those of you who follow soccer, Vienna hosted the 2008 European Football Championship in June. Yeah, I know it's almost August....give me a break. I've been busy swooning Ruth Bader Ginsburg (don't worry, Linz is totally cool with it....and if you don't get the joke, then you need to read our blog more often). Anyway, as I was saying/writing/composing, Vienna just finished hosting the Eurocup. It was pretty incredible...especially since I'm one of like three Americans who loves soccer (which from here on out will be referred to as football....cause I am like sooo totally European now.....and apparently a valley girl). I have lots of pics and a few videos...and they all pretty much speak for themselves. But....since I speak more better, I be translating for them. And I shall use the motif of "awesome."

So....let the awesomeness commence!



Inside the Fanzone is pure craziness. It is (or I guess I should say was) always jam-packed. Here, we have a picture of the awesome jam-packiness to which I refer....
Here's a good picture of the Rathaus during the Eurocup. This is the building we live beside...so yeah, we were right in the thick of things. So when the game was over (any game), whoever won would come right past our building yelling and screaming...sometimes till 2 in the morning. We got to the point where we really really despised the Turks....they kept pulling out these amazing victories (but I think they paid off the refs) and they would go CRAZY. Personally, I think the team was full of dirty players.....and their fans were dirty too (in more ways than one). They were NOT awesome.

And here we have a gentleman wearing lederhosen....pure Austrian awesomeness.

This guy right here /\ Seriously....leather shorts?

Ok, now this thing was WICKED awesome (or wicked hardcore for you Bostonians)...it was a life-size fussball table. They used these giant bears, and one person would control each line of men/bears with a giant wheel. It was quite a workout, but a lot of fun.

And this....well this is just pretty....














Anyway, our first night in the Fanzone was for the Germany-Poland game. I was rooting for Poland...for no other reason than to tick off our friend Carolyn, who is German. Here we are.
and check out Cory on the right...not sure what's going on there. He's probably dumbfounded by the awesomeness of our fuzzy hats.


Well, during halftime of this game, we (Linz, Carolyn, Jeff, and I) decided to check out the Fanzone store. We were in there for maybe 10 minutes and it started to rain. And not like a little drizzle....no, it was like a hurricane coming through Vienna. We tried to wait it out, but it got to be about 2230. And as it was a Sunday night, we had to get home cause we had to work the next day. So we decided to suck it up and sprint home. Well, I ran for about 10 seconds before I realized that 1) we were too far away from home, 2) the rain was coming down too hard, and 3) I was WAY too out of shape to run. And luckily I was able to convince everyone else of the first two points, thus successfully covering up my wussiness. So we kinda just jogged home. And here's the end result....rain-soaked awesomeness.







Oh yeah, and here's a pic from within the Fanzone store. This is Linz and Carolyn posing with the 2008 Eurocup mascots. I don't know if they had names, but I call them Hot Rod and Cool Todd, members of Team Awesome!!


And I'm not ashamed to admit that it took me a while to realize that their jersey numbers represent the year of the tournament....20 & 08. Yeah, I'm not very perceptive.


For those who know me, you know that when it comes to football (remember, we're taking European football here) there's really only one team I route for....Italy. I have been obsessed with Italy for years. And my love of Italy became complete when I went to Rome in 2005 for my first TDY (that stands for Temporary Duty...in case you don't know). So being able to watch Italy in this tournament surrounded by other fans (who actually were Italian....I didn't really blend too well) was....well, you might say it was awesome. Unfortunately, Italy didn't make it too far....not even to the quarterfinals. They were knocked out by Spain (who actually won the whole thing...so at least we lost to the champions). Anyway, here's a couple of pics/vids of us sporting our Italian gear (Linz had to borrow one of my jerseys).

Blond Italian Beauty

Linz, Andrew, and I. Andrew actually is Italian......but whatever, my jersey is cooler.

Well, this post is ridiculously long, and I'm getting tired of working on it. So here are some other pics. These are all from the Austria-Germany game. Yeah, that was a big one. Austria REALLY doesn't like Germany for some reason. It may have something to do with that whole annexation thing....who knows. Anyway, as I said above, our friend Carolyn is German, and we were rooting for Austria (cause hey, we live here now)....so there was some MAD trash talk going on. You might even say it was awesome. Actually I don't know if you'd say that...I mean, I'd say that, but I don't know if you would. I guess you wouldn't...cause you're not awesome like me.

And one last video to show you what happens during the celebrations. As I say in the video, this is what happened when Austria TIED a game...they didn't even win. Yeah, they were the underdogs of the tournament....so it was a big deal. But you see, in real life, the underdog doesn't win. That's right kids, if someone is bigger, faster, and stronger than you, throw in the towel...cause you have no hope. Forget what you see in the movies...life doesn't work like that.

I keed, I keed. Anyway, here's the vid, and that's all I have. Peace.