Football Fever

Spain meets Italy in the final match of the European Football (soccer) championship at 8:45 this evening. This is disappointingly late--I would have preferred to watch the match during dinner time--but nevertheless I have now planned dinner and my evening activities around it.

Until a few days ago we thought that it would be Spain against Germany. That would have been an interesting match, since Spain has been sparring with Germany over economic matters in the European Union for weeks now. I was rather hoping that an outcome to that game might be some sort of a talisman to tell what really is the correct answer for how to resolve the euro crisis and solve Spain's economic problems. But Italy beat Germany in the semifinals, so now it's just us two Mediterranean countries, both accused of faltering economies, to battle it out between ourselves.

We've done what we can for the Spanish economy and the EM championship--we bought a Spanish flag for 3€ yesterday that would have cost only 1€ last week and maybe less than that in the coming days, and it's mounted outside the sunroom in a flower pot. We'll stay awake until the final minute this evening, but we won't be moving to the streets to celebrate.

There will be a gigantic celebration tomorrow in Madrid, I read earlier. Spaniards love a fiesta. If Spain wins, they'll be celebrating that they won the championship. If Italy wins, Spain will be celebrating that they got to the finals. That's a pretty good way of looking at it, I think.