..still involved in the last stage of the World Cup (not that I'm interested in soccer generally)
So France today played the Semi-Finale against Portugal & kicked them out. - so it's a final matchup of blue - France's 'Les Bleus' vs. the Italian 'Azurri' (blue).
I watched the game & didn't know whether I should be more for the French or for the Portugesians, - because on one hand I liked the last games of the French vs. Spain & Brazil & the other hand I also would have liked the Portuguese to win, because I have since recently a Portugisean friend, who took me last week to the game Portugal vs. Holland (Netherlands) (I'll tell you later) -
So when France was leading with 1:0 I hoped till the end that Portugal would make a goal too - if it would have been the other way round I'd probably had hoped for the other side. - On the other hand: it's like playing chess against yourself - you just can't lose (or you just can't win) - (I heard that Iwan the Terrible (Ivan IV) prefered to play chess against himself - maybe because he didn't like to get defeated by others & well he died while playing chess against another person - probably he got an heart attack, cos he was about gettin' defeated)
Today when I was about t enter my workin place, the Italian neighbour the owner of a Pizzeria besides our Driving School came out & told me that someone in the night before had smashed his big shop window. - Well the whole story was, that in the evening before the guests of his Pizzeria - mainly Italians - had watched the game on his tv there. After the Italians had won they were still sitting at about midnight on the chairs & tables on the pavement in front of the Pizzeria, cheering & celebrating, that they were in the 'Finale'.
3 young, apparently drunk German guys, frustrated that the Germans had lost, got annoyed about the Italians cheering & one of them went mad & started to throw stones - the size of a fist - against the Pizzeria. - Luckily he didn't hit a person, but he hit the big window , which of course got a hole & a lot of cracks. -
Then he fled, while the Pizzeria owner & some of the Italians there tried to catch him & someone called the police of course. - The Pizzeria owner told me that he got hold of the committer, but then got kicked in the belly. He got him again & punched him in the face - & held him until the police came. - The other 2 guys escaped - but at least they got the one who threw the stones.
After the police had arrived the commiter began to lie & told the police, that the Italians had chased & beat him up without reason. - But there was another German who had watched it all from the other side of the street who came & witnessed that the version the Italians told was the right one.
Good that they got that foolish commiter. - In my minds eye throwing stones at people is an attempt to murder & now he has to pay the damage he has done (such a shop window is about 2.500,- Euro) & of course he'll get some other punishment too.
& please don't think this is a typical German situation - Germany has one of the lowest criminal rates worldwide, - but violent, stupid & fanatic people live all around the globe..
There was also a big stone lying in front of our shop window, but luckily had failed it.
Hmm - in tv you could after the games also see fans, frustrated, sad & even weeping after their country team had lost - if people react so emotional just for a stupid game, how will they react if something real happens to them? - Or is a game the only place where they can live out their emotions, where they can fulfill their longings to success which otherwise they're never able to reach? -
& please don't react like Ivan the Terrible who couldn't stand to lose a simple game..