Dreaming of France -- Football

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
Here in the U.S., we are all gathering around our televisions to celebrate American football with the Super Bowl, so I thought I'd show you our experience with European football.
When we traveled to Europe in 2006, the boys loved our hotel room view in Bandol -- not because we could see the Mediterranean but because we overlooked a large soccer field. Soccer to us, football to Europeans.
At the time, Spencer was more into soccer than Tucker, but he convinced his brother to join him.

Tucker is wearing the Beckham shirt

Spencer is wearing the Inter Milan soccer shirt. 

And the boys eventually made friends with some French boys who played soccer with them.
This was the kind of international experience we wanted them to have.

They couldn't actually speak to each other, but they managed to play some Football until some grown up yelled at them to get off the field. 

I hope everyone else has a sportif weekend, whether you're watching the Super Bowl or not.
Thanks for playing along and please visit the blogs of others who join in too.

Dreaming of France -- Football

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

In honor of the Super Bowl and the end of football season in the United States, I thought I'd post a picture of my boys playing European football, also known as soccer.
When we traveled to Europe in 2006, my boys carried along a small American football, which they passed back and forth whenever they found room to play catch. But one morning in France they headed down to a well-maintained soccer field across the street from the hotel and within view of the Mediterranean Sea, where they kicked the soccer ball around.

After a few weeks traveling around Europe, it was nice to settle in the hotel room and let the kids entertain themselves.

One afternoon, a few French boys showed up at the field and my boys played soccer with them. They didn't speak the same language, but they used some hand motions and the international language of soccer to play together. 

From the balcony of the hotel where we took the previous picture, we also took this picture of the Mediterranean. 

And from the soccer field, my husband took this picture of me sitting in the sun on the terrace while reading a book. 

And here's a photo I took of him on the terrace as he kept an eye on the soccer field. I would love to be sitting there now. 

I imagine if we had moved to France, my boys might have spent many an afternoon playing soccer with French children. 

Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France. I'd appreciate if you'd leave a comment and visit the blogs of others who decide to play along too. That way, we can all experience the joy and beauty of France. 

Dreaming of France -- Football

I like to think that in France, people are not obsessing about the Super Bowl like they are here in the United States.
But, in honor of the Super Bowl, here's a photo of French football.
My boys playing soccer on the soccer field outside of our hotel in Bandol. They were 12 and 10 years old at the time.

Bandol is along the Mediterranean and this soccer field was just along the coast. 

 

Later they met some local boys who played a game of soccer with them. 

 

Spencer said the kids talked kind of funny, but they were able to work out the basics through the language of football.
This was a great experience for them.

Fake Injuries in European Soccer

For the past few weeks, I've spent some of my afternoon watching the European Football tournament. That's soccer to us Americans. Teams from various countries play for the championship. This week the competition was down to Spain versus Portugal and Italy versus Germany.
My friends know that I love sports and I'm pretty competitive, so I revel in a good sports tournament, especially when country honor is at stake.
Watching European soccer has been an eye opener. I generally root for the underdog.

Here's a photo from Zimbio

As I watch, I am astonished by the number of players who fake injuries and lie on the field, rolled into a ball, even as play continues around them. Now, I've seen my fair share of NBA (basketball) stars take flops when guarding the basket, but to stay on the ground when they aren't actually hurt is unthinkable. Don't they know their team needs them?
The replays generally show that the player either was not touched or received only a glancing blow. The players are hoping that the referee will take pity and give the other play a yellow card, which is a warning. This is a sport that could really use an instant replay clause. That would get those guys to stop faking injuries.
While watching players from Greece, the Czech Republic, Ireland, England, France, Denmark, The Netherlands, along with the countries still in the tournament, I have come up with a theory. The farther south the country, the closer to the Mediterranean, the more likely the players were to flop on the field and feign an injury. I hate to speak ill of the players from these countries I love, but I think they have a knack for melodrama.
Some of them will lie on the field so long that the team brings out a stretcher and four strong guys to carry the hurt player off the field. This reminds me of the scene from Florence in  A Room With A View where the Italians get in a fight and one of the guys is killed by a knife. The other men in the piazza pick up the dead guy and carry him to the nearest fountain to wash him off. They carry him just like the guys from the soccer field.

 

Here's a picture of Ronaldo, not on the soccer field,
 but in an ad for Armani, I think.
This photo is from this website.

 In soccer though, inevitably, the hurt guy hops off the stretcher on the sidelines and goes back in the game within minutes. Why? Because he wasn't really hurt.
The biggest offender I saw in the faking injury field was Ronaldo who plays for Portugal when he isn't being paid a lot of money to play for Real Madrid or one of those teams. Ronaldo fell to the soccer field whenever another player breezed by him. And because Ronaldo is famous, the player on the other team often got a yellow card and a warning not to be so rough. Time and again, I saw Ronaldo sink to the green grass writhing in pain. In the end, Portugal lost to Spain, in spite of Ronaldo's excellent acting skills. I don't want to discount Ronaldo's other talents though, as you can see from the photo of him.
As I watched the soccer players lying on the ground, I imagined what it would be like to put them on the field with NFL players. Football players get up even when they are gravely injured. They hobble off the field with torn ligaments and concussions and broken bones. I'm not condoning the brutality that happens in the NFL, but I think the soccer players could stop faking injuries and start acting a little tougher.
The least they could do is save the dramatics for an actual injury.