World Cup Exchange

Well, we’re out. We went to Antwerp last night to watch the Ghana-USA game with the brothers in the church who are from Ghana. There was actually quite a crowd of Americans as well. We had a projector (a beamer) to watch the game in a big way. Only problem was that none of the channels were showing the game. Not any of the Flemish or Dutch channels, not the Germans, not the French-speaking Belgians or the French, not even the Spanish. Granted, the Italian channel was expected to show the other game (Italy-Czech Republic). So we had to watch Italy beat up on the Czech Republic and hope for an update at half time on the other game. By then it was already 2-1 for Ghana.

Admittedly this was a difficult one anyway. Ghana was the last chance for Africa, and we love our Ghanese brothers and sisters. So we were very happy for them. Especially since Ghana won the game with good play (and a free penalty from the ref – but the Ghanese didn’t have anything to do with that). But that leaves us a dilemma now – who do we root for?

Of course this has never been a dilemma for Sean. He has always said that those idiots back in 1776 ruined our chances for any good football team when they fought for independance. He is still rooting for England. And since we work in the Netherlands and most of our contacts are Dutch, we still have that option. As a matter of fact, we can’t very well get away from all of the orange. Can you imagine orange mayonnaise (which they put on their french fries), orange milk, orange everything you can imagine that usually isn’t orange.

So we are still holding out hope. The Belgians didn’t even get to go this time. You can hardly find anything in any of the Belgian stores that reminds you of the World Cup. It’s like they want to forget that it is happening since they didn’t get to come. Many of them have adopted the Australians – who did well last night. Now all they have to do is beat Brazil.

But it is a great opportunity to meet new people. We had a great time in Antwerp and look forward to the time we will have during some of the other games. Any excuse to get together (who needs and excuse?). And England or the Netherlands could still make it all the way. It could happen.