Aussie #Nerds <3 Soccer
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Rishegee
I doubt any of you would be aware that the sole reason I have been giving the opportunity to begin writing for this eminent site was due to a coincidental event only last Thursday, where I came across another staff writer, the venerable @RustyNath, in the Twitterverse one day.
The bond bringing us together, across seas – well, rivers, you need to live in Melbourne to understand – and swampy suburbs was our blood, which runs as navy blue as the ink in my fountain pen (alright, I’m writing this on a PC, but who would know, right?) We both barrack for the same football team, and our blueboys have brought us much joy, heartache, tears and laughter over the years. I was watching footy in the typical nerd fashion, as you do. No, this does not entail sitting in front of a plasma with an esky of beer in front of me. Rather, it involves sitting at my desk with the MacBook tuned in to “Match Centre”, powered by some lovely geek technology, where you can envisage precisely what’s happening down on the ground by training your eye on exotic looking dots, representing each team colour, with little bubbles telling you who is doing what. You look at the navy blue dots, and you know your boys are going well, and then the big fat GOAL flashes across the screen. It’s joy, I tell you. Doing this while listening to the radio and tweeting is about as interactive an experience as you can get without being at the ground or watching on TV (delays be damned, Australian broadcasting networks).
I tweeted, the footy club retweeted, and suddenly the nerd revolution in Australia was looking all the more promising.
(For those of you curious re the content of the actual tweet, you can find it here.)
The reason I bring you this footy introduction, lovely nerds and nerdettes, is to proclaim to y’all a challenge I’ve set for myself as I head on my Fabulous World Tour™ in May, which will have me traversing some of the most football obsessed nations of the world during a period where it may be slightly more on the forefront than other issues – otherwise known as “TventyTen”, the FIFA World Cup.
Travelling in Italy and Spain, surrounded by German, English and Australian backpackers, I can only assume I will be devoting a fair bit of time to watching this much hyped sporting event – which is a shame, as I’d much prefer if the channel could be trained on the AFL home and away season, or in an ideal world, the tennis grass court warmup tournaments (told you I’m a nerd). But I’ve resigned myself to fate and I know what will be, and in true nerd fashion, if you can’t beat em, I say join em.
So I need to learn how to follow soccer, and in particular, this notorious offside rule. I gave it a go last night and still haven’t yet figured out how the boys are supposed to kick a goal.
Off course in true nerd fashion, I follow sport but cannot hold a racket in my hand or even return a ping pong ball. My sporting prowess is limited to the treadmill at the gym, and even that is only in a good month. I like watching sport for the cute boys, the psychological analysis it entails, and the statistical calculations it affords me. Which brings me to the challenge I have set myself. This nerd will be learning soccer and its ins and outs, the leagues, the premierships, and of course, the notorious offside rule, just in time for the World cup. Bring it on, I say!
Talk Nerdy to this aussie on Twitter here: @Rishegee