Sunday 22nd November 2009 - Real Football

          This being Sunday, I declare a day of rest.  I have to pack up to move on anyway.  Pottstown has been a very comfortable and pleasant stay, but there wasn't really much to do.  Glasgow is nearly invisible, and doesn't even run to a roadsign.

          Scanning through the sports section of the complementary newspaper, I see that there is a big soccer match on tonight.  That should provide some interesting comparison with back home.

 

          So, later that night, I take myself of to my regular hostelry in the town centre.  The owner insists on giving me a souvenir T-shirt.  I take advantage of his generosity to ask if one of the six TV screens could be devoted to the soccer match.  All the screens are showing football, bur he obliges.

          This is the MLS (Major League Soccer) Cup, the final championship playoff game between the winner of the Western Conference, LA Galaxy (with you-know-who) and the winner of the Eastern, Real Salt Lake (how that happened I can't explain).

          The game has a lot in common with its European counterparts.  There is clearly a lot of happy banter between the players and the officials.  The TV director provides plenty of close ups of players gobbing.  Some tackles produce Oscar-winning injury performances.  There are lots of foreign names on the backs of shirts (although that doesn't make them foreigners here).  And David Beckham's appetite for silly haircuts remains undiminished.

          The game provides two 45-minute sessions of advert-free TV, which is quite remarkable in itself.  In fact, soccer has a number of difficulties establishing itself here, going non-stop being one of them.  The other is that it doesn't seem to lend itself to statistical analysis.  American sports fans rely on constantly updated statisitics to classify players, teams, and games.  Because I was watching under sufferance, I got no sound, so I was spared the stats.  I was also spared the commentary, which pleased me no end.

 

          Tomorrow, I'm off to the county seat, Norristown, to look over the Courthouse, and, hopefully, the Historical Society.