Spain Sees Soccer Glory… At Last!

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Last night, Spain won the Euro Cup.  It was the national team’s first football victory in
over 44 years.

Since getting through to the semi finals,

Spain has gone football mad,  and although I am too tired after my late night
celebrations to do a full write up today,  here are some interesting
snippets of info about

Spain

in this year’s Euro Cup…

At 11 am when the lifeguards announced the beginning of
their watch at the beach over the tannoy, 
they blurted out a cry of ‘España’ at the end.  The beach peddlers added flags of all sizes
to their usual array of cheap dresses, beach towels and chancla flip-flops.

Spain is mostly Catholic, and during the games, they have the idiosyncratic practice
of placing images of Catholic saints around the television during crucial
stages of the game.  Not content to rely
on one single religious practice, the Spanish TV station Cuatro sold Voodoo
doll ephigies of a goal keeper.  The doll
came with a backpack of flags, one for each country in the Cup, to be pinned to
his chest during a match, a set of pins, and a small length of rope.  The concept was rather disturbing, and
undoubtably in poor taste,  but they sold
like wildfire, perhaps because it was a way for people to feel like they were
doing something to help.   I have a nasty feeling that theses little OTTO
dolls as they were called may hit the news, 
as Spanish reporters and commentators got carried away after the game
and started placing the mutilated figures in the German changing rooms and on
the tour bus.   While they were designed
as a bit of fun,  I’m not sure the
Germans will get the joke.

You can see OTTO over at this link:   http://otto.cuatro.com/

You can read my article about Spain winning the Euro Cup at www.orato.com