World Cup from Switzerland

For the first week of the World Cup, and I’m here in Geneva, Switzerland for work.  The upshot is that Geneva is in the same time zone as Johannesburg, so the games are at more reasonable times.  In fact, it’s the first time in my life I’ve seen World Cup games live in Prime Time.

Vevuzelas.  There here.  And not at World Cup events, folks just have them on the street.  And they use them.  Seemingly randomly, not just if they’re watching a game.  Sure it’s an annoying sound, but if it brings someone bring a little fun into their life, it’s actually hard to find complaint.

There’s actually two public watch areas in Geneva for the World Cup.  Both at the two biggest local stadia, Stade de Geneve, the home of the local Swiss Second Division side – Sevette FC, and Patinoire des Vernets home of the local Swiss hockey team Geneve-Servette and a really cool old hockey venue.

Some colleagues and and I decided to check out festifoot at the hockey rink for the US-England game.  Located in the parking lot of the stadium, festifoot is set up to operate every day of the world cup.  The lot perimeter is lined with food and drink vendors.  And since it’s Europe you can freely buy beer and wander around. You can also buy mixed drinks and wine…..or a whole freakin’ bottles of wine and hard liquor.  Which just contrasts ever so with the candy and balloon vendors that were there for the kids.

In front of the arena, there’s a stage for live music next to a large screen.  I’m bad at estimating the size but, it’s safe to say is was over 50ft, and wasn’t dwarfed by the stage.  Bands play between games.

The crowd at Halftime of US-England

While wandering around the complex a expatriate desperately approached me asking where I got my blue US jersey. Stores here are silly with French, Italian, Swiss, Argentina, Brazil, and the African countries’ stuff, but no US.  Sadly, I had to tell him I brought it from home.

At the beginning of the match there were an obvious 25-50 US fans in the hundreds that were there, as the game progressed, the crowd grew considerably, and a majority of the parking lot was filled with people.   And overall it wasn’t a hostile atmosphere for an American soccer fan.  The cheers for the US was about on par with those for the English.  I’ve been in the far majority at US Qualifying games at home (specifically RFK, and Richmond in the 1996 campaign), this never came close to that.  In fact when returning to the hotel you could hear the chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A” through the streets of Geneva.  Those were obviously more anti-England than pro-US sentiments, but it still sounded nice.

Another enjoyable aspect was returning to the hotel in time to catch the ITV (official British broadcaster/excuse maker for the English) whine and go on about the game itself.