Ah, but there is a catch. Apart from the fact that I really should be getting on with finding a job, there is the much bigger concern of whom to support over the next couple of excitement- and alcohol-fuelled weeks. This isn't as straightforward a choice as I'd like it to be. Roughly 65% of the whole fun about watching football is rooting for one of the two competing teams and investing some emotional capital in their achievements. 30% consists of "analysing" what happens on the pitch - y'know, the positions people take up, the amount and directions of the runs they make, the body language of the managers, etc (this, by the way, is done at almost unbearable - but still admirable - length and detail at nerd-spots like Zonal Marking). The remaining 5% is taken up by cheering whenever Chelsea/Bayern Munich/United/France/Juventus lose.
As I have said before, I find it very difficult to muster up any support for the German team. I mean, I do still get the odd goosebumps when I hear the national anthem, but that's mainly because it's one of the most bitching national anthems around and less because of any kind of national pride. They have a young team, some awesome players (Mueller, Oezil, Lahm) and will inevitably end up in the semi-finals. And yet, and yet. England has become my home, and I really believe that you can get attached to a national team that isn't the country of your birth if you feel a strong connection to it and its people. That is, excluding the bulk of their football supporters. Fans of national football teams, put together into close proximity to each other, to me resemble an ugly, unpredictable human version of the rat king, spewing shit beer and casual racism.
When I mention to other Germans that I've liked the look of every Dutch team at the last couple of tournaments, they look at me like I've got a wart the size of a beer mat on my forehead, and England fans to whom I confide that I want their team to do well probably assume I'm trying to suck up to them, but I'm not.
All of this means that I'll watch a lot of games either alone or in an awkward kind of emotional limbo, not wanting to appear like a traitor or gloryhunter, but at the same time trying not to give in to the (in my opinion) blind optimism/rage of "patriotic" supporters.
Tim Dowling got to the point I'm trying to make a lot quicker and more succinctly in yesterday's G2: "As someone who was not born in Britain, who remains suspicious of collective experience of any kind and who finds the soft line between patriotism and hooliganism as fuzy as the distinction between a legitimate tackle and aggrevated assault, I'm going to offer a piece of advice: give in."
I'll go and buy a Holland shirt with van Bronckhorst on the back now. This will be a long month
