I'm Welsh, didn't you know?!?
The thing I missed most about home when I was in Canada was being Welsh. What I mean by that is the passion and pride everyone from the green green grass of home has in being Welsh. It's hard to explain and describe, it can only be shown. I wish my friends from Canada could have been in Cardiff today. Today was Wales versus England in soccer. There were nearly 80,000 people in the stadium and apparently, at least that many in the streets and pubs. With me!
Today, my brother Gareth, myself and one of my best friends Catrin camped in the Walkabout pub, an Australian bar in Cardiff. We sang, we drank, we danced and this was way before the soccer started. Awesome music - Tom Jones, Stereophonics, the Welsh National Anthem, Tony Bennett, anything that got people going. And the noise was amazing. I'm talking hundreds of people cramped onto a dancefloor, all booing and slandering the English, cheering anything to do with Wales. No joking, I saw one England soccer shirt in this pub, the England fans stayed away from the city centre unless they were going into the game.
To put into perspective, England are one of the top ten soccer teams in the world. They aim to beat teams like Brazil and Germany. Wales are about 70th. We drew with Azerbaijan and lost to Austria and Poland. We are in a transitional period and have been for about 40 years I think! And for Wales to take on England requires a lot of guts and a hell of a lot of luck. We had guts, we didn't get the luck today and lost 1-0 to a deflected shot. We gave them a good game and came close.
When I see eleven guys busting their guts in vain, I feel proud to be Welsh. I felt this way last March when Wales won the 6 Nations Rugby Championship. I walked to Joes and could have cried, I just wanted to celebrate with someone. I had thousands of people to commiserate with today. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else on the planet. You guys should have been here to see it. Hockey? Nah, sport is life over here. And soccer will always be number 2 to rugby.
posted by Matty Welsh @ 8:36 pm
5 Comments:
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Matty, Wow - what a great way of describing the atmosphere there, although I am sure it doesn't even come close to comparing! You're right, it would have been an awesome thing to experience! Glad you got to!
Although not nearly the same thing - I have quite a bit of school pride. Although it is fairly difficult to dress in "garnet and gold", which is MtA's colours, last year you could find me enduring long rain storms to watch the football team lose for the fourth year in a row, or in the gym hitting a cowbell with a drumstick until it broke for the basketball team (I don't even like basketball). But I have to say that Mount Allison students in whole do not have much of a passion for their school. I sometimes feel like I am a continent away and have no one to celebrate with. I can tell you one thing though - if MtA beats Acadia for homecoming this year, this school will be partying for a good while!
hahaha!!
Mt. A?? Beat Acadia?!?
Not gonna happen! I'm gonna be there with all my Acadia gear on!
GO AXEMEN!
Matty, it does sound like you Welsh have the team spirit down! You'll get those English Bastards next time!
Wrong shaped ball :-) Mind you, if Northern Ireland can then why not Wales :-)
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