Susan 的个人资料Soccer Orb照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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9月10日 Help with Nantes tickets?Does anyone know if it is difficult to get tickets for FC Nantes?
We'll be in Nantes next weekend and hope to see them play Sedan on September 17. I think that I understand from the team website that last-minute seats can be bought for the low low price of 3 euros at the stadium just prior to the game. Apparently it is also possible to buy them at a store called Leclerc. My high school French didn't help me too much when it came to determining if one must be a club member (like at Arsenal) in order to have the right to buy a ticket.
We are excited to see a match in France, especially at Nantes. I hadn't realized how successful this club had been since its inception back in 1943 (and that's another thing. How was it that a club was founded during the Occupation? More research needs to be done). The club is off to a strong start and looks as if its first-ever relegation will last only one season.
If anyone knows, could you please send me an email (before Wednesday)?
Je vous en remercie.
A Brazil-USA game report will be coming at some point before Wednesday's departure... 9月7日 I want to play soccer every day!I may be in danger of being kicked out of the blogosphere. It's been over a month since I've posted anything. There's no chance that I've lost interest in soccer, but I'm slogging through yet another of those phases where original thoughts are thin on the ground. And then the other day I remembered that I'm going to see the Brazilian team--with Ronaldhino, Kaka, et al--this Sunday at Soldier Field. Even better, the US is fielding a full-strength side, so there's a decent chance that the match won't be too "friendly." We will be there very early to watch warmups and get pictures, so football is about to return to the front burner. For the past month, I've been engaged in preparations--rivaling those of the D-Day invasion--to dispatch The Girl for a semester of "study" in France. She left Tuesday evening and, happily, has made contact several times since then. All the reports are good. Her French family sounds delightful, with a tendency to tell little jokes and laugh a lot, the best boulangerie in town is just around the corner, and the city is ancient and lovely. Monsieur loves to fish (as does The Girl, improbably, since she recoils from anything that smacks of "the real Illinois"), but there's no word yet about the family's affinity for le foot. The Girl did pack her Thierry Henry France replica jersey. This is no small thing, given luggage constraints and the demands of fashion. She has even expressed hope that she will attend a football match this semester. Since Nantes was just relegated last year for the first time ever, perhaps les billets will be somewhat easier to come by. Or maybe more difficult, if the local supporters are determined to inspire the team back into the top division. So how do these motherly musings about The Girl relate to the beautiful game? For one thing, soccer is one of the few sports in which she has any interest. She's familiar with most of the world's top players, cares about Manchester United's EPL fortunes, follows the World Cup, and can occasionally be induced to go to a Chicago Fire game. In contrast, the Cubs show up on her radar primarily because Wrigley Field is beautiful and Wrigleyville would be an entertaining place to take up residence after graduation. I think that the only baseball players whom she could actually identify are Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon. For her to sit through a full nine innings is pretty much unthinkable. In a roundabout way, it was The Girl who sparked our interest in football. Since it is de rigeur for all American schoolchildren to play this game (I believe that there are penalties assessed if they do not), she played in the local park district for a few years before moving on to a traveling club in middle school. She stuck with that for four years, abandoning it only when it became impossible to juggle soccer with a place on the tennis team, honors courses, and the usual extracurricular stuff that you need to get into college (insert cynical eye roll here). As a lefty who was speedy despite her petite stature, she served her team well and even scored a few goals. But soccer couldn't compete with the glamour of varsity tennis at a big high school and in case you haven't noticed, those tennis skirts are way more fashionable than baggy shirts and shorts. I must plead guilty to a stint as a soccer mom, as I shuttled her to practice and supplied snacks. But The Guy embraced his role as a soccer dad with gusto. He even became one of the team's coaches, attending clinics and giving the girls thoughtful and insightful advice--a thankless task, for the most part. But his heavy involvement in the team paid off in the end--because he fell in love with the game. He learned more about the world game through what he could scrape up on the internet and by watching a goofy EPL report once a week. I don't even know what channel aired it, since we didn't have FSC back then. Anyway, his enthusiasm for real football was contagious and thus, eventually, was born Soccer Orb. And it all began one day in 1994 when The Girl was dropped off after her very first practice. She ran in the front door and announced, "I want to play soccer every day!" |
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