Winner Stays On: Different country, different culture

Winner Stays On / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 11 March 2011 / Leave a Comment

If Only has predicted Ryan Giggs' Manchester United will draw at home to Arsenal

"Conspiracy theories are aplenty regarding which teams the refs support and how far they’d go to help the side they support without it costing them their job. The refs are discussed more often than players or managers and everyone knows everything about them."

Reigning champ If Only tries to make it six in a row with Arenal's trip to Old Trafford amongst this week's matches.

It's funny how football is seen and indeed discussed in different countries. In England all the post-match talk in pubs and by water-coolers is about the goals, the performances and the players. Hardly surprising given that's pretty much what football is all about. In Italy it's all about the aesthetics of the game: the team's brand new away kit, the star player's cool hairstyle and the immaculate goatee beard, the synchronised goal celebration rehearsed in training during the week for longer than set-pieces or keeping possession ever would be. It sounds clichéd but it's true. That's what Italians like to discuss in the aftermath of any game.

In Portugal there's only one thing everyone wants to discuss the next day and that's the refereeing. Was he really offside or should he have been given the benefit of the doubt? Did he deserve to be sent off, should it have just been a yellow or was it what they call an "orange" card whereby either card would have been fair given the offence feel within that area of uncertainty between the two cards. Conspiracy theories are aplenty regarding which teams the refs support and how far they'd go to help the side they support without it costing them their job. The refs are discussed more often than players or managers and everyone knows everything about them. The following is a true story: I sat in a cafe once in Portugal for an hour as three men argued two penalty decisions, the nine different yellow cards and the two sendings-off, a goal that had a hint of off-side about it and a corner (which led to nothing by the way) which should have been given as a goal-kick. After listening to meticulous analysis of this, most of which was done in a rather loud voices, I interrupted and asked one of them what the final score had been.

"I think it was 3-2 but I'm not really sure. I wasn't really paying too much attention to those sort of things".

It's not right or wrong that people see football in different ways or like to focus on different aspects, it's just a different culture.

Making cultured selections this week is five-time WSO champ IF Only and challenger Hattersbhoy.

This week's matches:

Man Utd v Arsenal
Zaragoza v Valencia
Bayern v Hamburg

If Only's selections

Man Utd v Arsenal - Back Under 2.5 goals at 1.94
Zaragoza v Valencia - Back Over 2.5 goals at 2.08
Bayern v Hamburg - Back Under 2.5 at 2.5

Hattersbhoy's selections

Manchester Utd v Arsenal - Back the draw at 3.8
Zaragoza v Valencia - Back Under 2.5 goals at 1.81
Bayern Munich v Hamburg - Back Over 2.5 goals at 1.65