Female Football Fan

I was watching the Euro2008 Championship qualifying match between Denmark and Sweden earlier today live at the stadium (Parken). Man, what a controversial match! It didn't start good since Denmark was down 0-3 already in the first half, but just a few minutes before half-time, they managed to narrow the margin by scoring 1 goal.

The first 10 minutes of the 2nd half was pretty boring. I almost fell asleep, and judging from the silence in the Danish camp, I think the other tens of thousands of Danish supporters were falling asleep too. However, the game finally picked up momentum when Jon Dahl Tomasson scored the 2nd goal for Denmark! Yay!!! Everyone was awake again, with cheering and clapping and beating of drums as hope began to rise to an all new high.

To everyone's delight, Denmark scored goal #3 within the next few minutes! I'll be damned! The atmosphere at the stadium reached fever pitch, and I'm sure even the Swedes were impressed. 12 minutes to go, and the Danes were still fighting. A draw would have been good, but at this point, every Dane was stretching out to touch victory.

89 minutes...and NOOOO!!!! Penalty kick awarded to Sweden for an illegal tackle in the box! Red card to Poulsen too! As if that wasn't bad enough, a Danish spectator had to run onto the field to punch the referee in the face! What the...?!?

Needless to say, the match was stopped immediately. Players and officials departed into the dressing room to discuss what the outcome of the match should be, and while they discussed, 2 more spectators came onto the field to make a spectacle of themselves. Great.

Finally, a decision was reached. The match was ended, with Denmark losing 0-3 to Sweden. Thank you very much, Mr Referee Puncher - you just cost us our chance to qualify for Euro2008. May you NEVER be allowed to watch another live match at the stadiums in your life!

Anyway, I usually only watch World Cup finals and European Cup finals (but never live at the stadiums), and can't really be bothered with club football or qualifying matches. However, I was at today's qualifying match at the stadium simply because it was an invitation from one of our major suppliers ;o). It was a good experience indeed.

Here is the strange thing about my relationship with Martin: I get super crazy about football every 2 years for 1 month, while Martin doesn't care a single bit about it. Normally, it's the guy who's crazy about football while his woman rolls her eyes. In our case, while I watch the games, he gets me my beer. No, just kidding; I hate beer. But yeah, he doesn't understand why I get crazy over football during the finals, while I wish he would be just a bit enthusiastic about it so that I can have a co-spectator at home.

Then again, come to think of it, maybe it's good that he doesn't care. In that way, at least someone will be taking care of dinner while the other watches the match ;o).

Anyway....my favourite team is Portugal, so I hope they win Euro2008 this time. They were so close during Euro2004, and did well in World Cup 2006, so it's should be about time that they actually pull themselves together to win something! I just hope they quit the play-acting on the field though. Wimps.