Last night I was writing a blog post. The windows in our third-floor apartment were open and periodically the streets below would resonate with cheering, singing and chanting.
Last night was the European sports equivalent of the Super Bowl in the U.S. It was the UEFA Champion League final match to determine the top football (in Europe that means soccer) team in the best soccer league in the world. The league playoff features 36 teams from diverse areas in Europe. Last night a team from France played a Spanish team (or was it Italian) in the final. In soccer goals are difficult to come by. Last night the French squad won 5-0. Each goal was accompanied by an explosion of sound. That was nothing compared to what was to come.
If anyone reading this has ever been in a city that won a U.S. championship in the NFL, NHL, NBA or MLB baseball you would have had an opportunity to experience the euphoric adrenalin rush of fans celebrating that victory as they poured into the streets from bars and homes. Shortly after I finished my post and sometime after dark, that is after 10pm the cheering, singing and chanting was accompanied by a multitude of car horns blaring and motorcycle engines revving. The French had won 5-0 and I imagine cities, big and small, all over the country exploded with fan energy. Noise carried on into the wee hours of the morning.
It is a testament to the need of people to find community and the awesome visceral power of sports that events like last night are able to happen. There is a profound psychological expression at work, and it is one that I cannot explain better than what I wrote in the previous sentence. Last night I did not go into the streets to celebrate. Other times in my life I have joined the wave, and the energy is real and palpable. Unlike celebrations in the U.S. I have seen and participated, in the morning the nightly cleanup of my neighborhood (which incidentally is littered with restaurants and bars that telecast the match) was complete. Everything was back to clean and ready for Sunday morning in the numerous cafes with their outside tables, chairs and umbrellas; and the seats at those cafes were well occupied by 9:30am when I left home.
Even from my third story window it was fun to experience the energy of the night. Guess it was my lucky night, and it couldn’t have happened without sports.
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Yes, football is big here and people are quite enthusiastic about their teams, so be careful what you say.
The big cities here experiencing lots of drunk people that can be violent, ay least in the UK, sad people are you so prone to allowing this type of behavior
We should appreciate the sport, but use common sense in celebrating victory
There is a sadness as 2 people are reported dead. Too bad it can’t just be about a collective energy and not a diminished ego response that needs to WIN! I really have enjoyed the collective energy in the past, kinda like riding a wave
Big win for Paris Saint-Germain!!
They are coming to the US for a tournament and will be playing the Seattle Sounders in a match…uh oh….
Glad you could appreciate this like a true francophile.