I'll be honest and come right out and say that I do not really care about the World Cup. It's not that I am a stupid American or anything like that, I have lived most of my adult life overseas (not in USA) and I am extremely familiar with how seriously the "rest of the world" takes this sport. That doesn't mean that I have to be excited though now, does it?
The game times are pretty horrible for us over here as well so other than the odd one that takes place in the morning and I just happen to be awake for it, I probably will not see any of them.
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There are quite a few bars in my area that are going to feature some of the games and there is one bar, one that unfortunately is known for being quite violent, that is going to have almost all of them on. The only exception will be when some game is on at 2 in the morning with what would be considered minor teams here such as Saudi Arabia, Cabo Verde (who?), Curacao, and Qatar. In case you were wondering, I looked all of those up because other than the usual suspects I don't really have much of an idea who is even playing.
I do know that some of the matches are simply destined to have problems at them and it wont be because of team's fans rivalries but just because when these specific groups of nationalities get together, there tends to be trouble.
The first bellwether event will be what is our next Wednesday night, which will technically be Thursday for us, when England plays Croatia.
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A lot of the semi-permanent expat population here is British and I don't know a single one of them that doesn't drink excessively. One of these people, who thankfully keeps his shit together and never starts trouble, just happens to be the current champion of my bowling league here in Da Nang, and the England games starts at 3am, will likely be going on until 5 or even 6, then depending on if they win or not they make stick around for a couple of hours drinking afterwards if the bar lets them and then he has to come and defend his championship at the lanes at 11am. If he decides to not sleep and pull and all-nighter it could be very interesting to see how he performs.
He will not be the problem at these events but other people will be. If there is one thing I have learned from over 20 years of living around English football fans, it is that they take this very very seriously.
One of the bars that is nearest my house and is the home to a lot of scraps and senseless fights is Shamrock Irish pub and sports bar. For a while there, about 6 months or so, they stopped being 24 hours. This had something to do with staffing issues as well as them needing to have a way to kick the trouble-makers out for a few hours and this would happen between 5 and 9 AM. That seems like such a silly amount of time to close to prevent fighting but it was actually quite effective. I don't know what it is about people that convinces them that this is the time to fight strangers but I think it is a combination of many hours of booze, not any food, and probably a bit of self-loathing because now the sun is coming up and they are already aware of the fact that they hare completely screwed up their ability to be a functioning member of society for at least the following day.
So what better way to improve this situation than by punching people and getting punched?
I am almost never in bars at that time of day. There are rare exceptions such as the Super Bowl but strangely, there have never been any fights at any of the Super Bowl parties that I have gone to. Perhaps it is because the Super Bowl is rather stupid and it is mostly 3 hours of commercials. We don't have a chance to get angry at one another because we are so pissed off towards our own mutual enemy... marketing.
In the World Cup there are no commercials that I am aware of or if there is it will only happen at half time. I suppose this is when the fights will likely happen.
So seeing as how the crowd will be entirely English because as far as I know zero Croatians live here, why do fights happen?
Well it is because the rowdy fans take their celebration too far and do things like throw drinks all around and this lands on people who maybe are not as excited as they are about the victory. For me, if someone threw a drink on me I would probably just give them a "hey man, what the fuck?" rather than swing on them but honestly, that would probably be enough to get them wanting to swing on me.
I would avoid these things even if they weren't in the middle of the night. I may look at the scores every now and then.
This morning I walked by Shamrock during the Korea vs. Czech Republic or whatever we are calling that country now and it was really quiet. I do love that about Koreans. They love their sport teams as well but they have a quiet way of showing it. I've never heard about Koreans starting fights. I'm sure it happens but for the most part my experience with Koreans is that they are more polite and reserved.
I just happened to be walking by with my dog. I forgot the game was even on.
People were sending me messages telling me that USA is playing Paraguay at 8am tomorrow, which actually would be a good time for me to turn up to watch but I still said no. Maybe I'll catch a game later on in the matches should USA make it to that point. From what little I know about the state of current nations' teams, the USA isn't expected to make it very far and I really won't care even a little bit if they don't.
If you love the World Cup I am happy for you and there are a lot of people here that are going to completely uproot their lives to fit the games into their schedules. I will not be one of those people. Enjoy yourselves!
