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23 June 2024 - Zürich
I'm not a rabid football fan in any sense of the word. I can't name a single player on the US national team, and, since the men's side is often not in international competition, I usually root for Deutschland instead. This is a habit I picked up back in college when I was finishing my German degree and they were playing the world cup in Japan and Korea. There's something magical about getting up when it's still dark to do something academic or scientific, like watching a game on the other side of the world or, as I would be several years later, monitoring a particle accelerator running at full power into the BaBar detector, or just last year sitting on the crater rim of Kilahuea eating Cheerios as the molten rock bubbled and splashed below me. These are the moments where one feels truly connected to Nature - when it's dark and, as Einstein famously put it, she lets you look up her skirt.
But with the European championship being held right next door in Deutschland and evidence of the contests in so many public places I couldn't help but get drawn in. And last night Switzerland (the latest country I've adopted) played Deutschland. After so many years I can't really root against Deutschland. Still, they are a bit the football world's version of the Yankees. And I definitely HATE the Yankees. Iwona was 100% for Switzerland even those she got a degree and her son was born in Berlin. And it seemed for a while the fates were as well. Switzerland scored and Deutschland wasn't able to match it in 90 minutes of regular play. But then there are those seemingly arbitrary extra minutes that they add to football games. During those four extra minutes Deutschland managed a goal to tie it up meaning the game ended in a draw. Extra minutes and a draw! The American in me cringes at both. Still, Switzerland is headed to the knockout round which is I suppose all they needed. And so is Deutschland.
