This guy is kind of a big deal apparently

I leave the country for one week and all hell breaks loose: Matt Cain throws a perfect game, Dale Jr wins a race, the Heat win three in a row, and KSTV is no more.

If you follow me on twitter, you know I am not the biggest soccer fan in the world.  Unfortunately, I am surrounded by it.  I am currently studying abroad in Europe and soccer  football really is the only thing that people care about.  During introductions on the first day of class everyone named their favorite Premier League team.  At night we go watch the Euro Cup matches at a pub, there are no other sports (or ESPN for that matter)

I am currently in Manchester, England and one of the things that surprised me was the attitude of indifference towards the English Euro Cup team.  People still watch the matches but there is not the level of enthusiasm that I thought there would be (drunken masses of supporters, hooligans, riots, etc).  I’ve been told that one, the team is not very good or was not expected to be very good and two, people are waiting for the Premier League to begin again in August.  It’s very much akin to how most UK fans treat football (our kind), we let it humor us until basketball season starts.  Hopefully things will pickup now that they are in the knockout stage.

Follow me on twitter as hopscotch across the European continent.