Sunday, December 4, 2011

A Heads Up


Unfortunately for most of my followers, you're going to see quite a few football posts on the lead up to next June when I'm traveling to Poland for 15 days to support Ireland as they play in the European Championship (only the second time we've ever qualified for the tournament, the last time being in 1988).

It's a weird thing, but online I'm a little bit hesitant to talk about sports at all. I understand that most of my geeky friends have no interest in it and I too can find some sports obsessed people annoying but it's still a big part of my life. 

Since I was a kid, I've always used sports to connect with my dad. He had three sons but I turned out to be the only one with any interest in football and it quickly became a tradition that we would watch games on TV together. Even now, it's our first point of conversation when we're catching up, "did you see the game last week? What was the manager thinking?" etc.

I'm extremely proud of my national team. The Republic of Ireland don't have a lot of great players but there has always been a brilliant passion about the lads who put on the green shirt. In the modern era of football you only have to look at our neighbors England to see how most players don't care about playing for their country but it really makes me proud to say that this isn't the case with the Irish lads. They give their all for us out on the pitch and I'd be lying if I said it doesn't make me emotional every now and then.


One of my best friends Andy managed to get tickets to our three games at the tournament next year and the two of us have been busy booking hotels and flights since the draw was made on Friday. We found out we're playing Croatia, Italy (a lot of history between us and Italy on the pitch) and Spain (the world champions). It's going to cost us a fortune but I don't care, it will be worth every penny.

It's over 7 months away but I'm already excited to go. We'll be in Poznan for the majority of the two weeks with a quick trip to Gdansk for the Spanish game. It's a long time to be away but there will be football on every night and so many other fans around, we're sure to have a laugh.

Anyway, this was just a post to say, I love my national team and you'll be hearing a lot about it over the course of the next 7 to 8 months or so. I hope you have a good time with me.

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