World Cup Fever Hits Europe

You can almost feel the excitement in the air: the 2006 World Cup starts in Germany this week. Whether you're a football fan or not, it's time to get into the game.

With the countdown to the 2006 World Cup hitting the home stretch, it's about time to start talking culture. Now, when one thinks about the word "culture" in terms of Western Europe, one may not instantly jump to football (soccer, for all you Americans out there). Art, architecture, music, literature ... these are the staples of European culture, but one would be remiss to skip what is increasing taking over the lives of the younger European crowd.

Enter an Irish or English pub in France, for example, and you'll find groups of Anglo-Saxon beer drinkers soaking up the atmosphere. Enter that same pub on a night when France is playing football and you'll find a crowd of Frenchmen all facing the nearest television. For a nation of people more comfortable spending several hours eating a leisurely four-course dinner and sipping on wine (some of the best wine in the world, it must be said), standing in a crowded bar chugging brewskis is just not their thing.

But football is. France, after all, hosted and then won the 1998 World Cup. I happened to have been in Paris when they won and it was a sight to be seen. The Parisians were so nice. That in itself is a tip off to how football affects the French psychie.

Two of my dearest friends came to visit me and take in the Winter Olympics in Turin in February and what was my favorite local Irish pub showing? Football. Inconsequential football. That, by the way, would have been blasphemy had I said it at the pub that night. Football - friendly games or otherwise - are never "inconsequential." We couldn't find a pub in Nice, just a few hours away from Olympic action, which was showing the Games. Nope, here it's football, football, rugby and football.

Luckily for me, my friends are the go-with-the-flow types and joined right in picking a team and trying to figure out which uniform their team was wearing. So my suggestion to you, the future fans of football, is to pick a team and join in on the fun.

The 2006 World Cup is being held in several locations around Germany from June 9 to July 9. For more information, visit http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/