I draw Switzerland in the local bar's lucky Euro game

I will admit that I am not really a huge fan of football but I am a fan of hanging out with my friends and right now this whole town has gone a bit gaga for the European football cup 2024. Virtually every single bar has all the games on and for us, they come on at a relatively perfect time if you like to go to bars that is. We get the first game on at 8, then 11, then 2am. It has to be something really special for me to go to a 2am anything, let alone a sport that I have a kind of lukewarm interest in.

So the deal was that you put in 100k VND which is around $4 to enter the lucky draw. No one is allowed to choose which team they are going to support because if one was allowed to do that everyone would have picked either Germany, France, or England, who are the likely winners of the tournament statistically speaking. I figured I would get involved just because it is fun and was just hoping that I didn't end up with some shite Eastern European team or Turkey. The way it works is that the top 4 teams will pay out using all the money that was contributed towards the game and it will be matched with prizes that are awarded by the bar that we are watching the games in. It's fun so far.

I ended up getting a "middle of the road" team that probably has some chance of finishing in the top 4 so that is pretty exciting to me.

src

Before the Euros started, I couldn't have named a single Swiss player. Ok, I'll be honest, I still can't even after watching one of their games but there is a good reason for that. Since I am not heavily involved in social media I didn't realize that the draw of teams had already happened when we were watching the 2nd day of games at our weekly meetup for dinner together. I was actually rooting for Hungary because they are underdogs and I always like an underdog. There was also that story about how Hungary got fined 200 million Euros by the EU for not accepting enough migrants or something like that. That's another story but in a shell, I think that ruling is bullshit and if I was Hungary I would refuse to pay it.

Anyway, the games have been a lot more interesting to me because of being involved in this and now I actually feel compelled to go and watch the games. I will likely not go to all of them because that is absurd and I don't need to be out drinking that often anyway but so far I have been to a few and in support of my UK friends who constitute a large portion of my overall friend mix, I even went to the late game where England played against Serbia.

src

Now I don't know how often you hang out with Brits, but for the most part they are really wonderful people. However, when you combine a late hour, football, and booze all in the same situation, they might the most irritating people in the world. They scored a single goal against Serbia, which was a wonderful goal, but then the lads were chanting "it's coming home!" over and over for the next hour or so. They were spilling drinks all over the place and of course, a Brit -on-Brit fight started at one point as well... probably because someone spilled beer on someone else.

I was at the bar minding my own business speaking to two English friends and a Russian friend as well. Even though this is my local bar and I hang out there at least 2 times a week, I knew very few of the people in attendance. I had actually gone to sleep pretty early 6 hours or so before the game started and the only reason that I went was because I couldn't understand why I would wake up at 2am, this is not something that often happens to me so I took it as a sign that I should head to the bar which is only around the corner from my condo anyway. I left Nadi at home much to her chagrin and that was probably the correct move because when I do take her out it is almost impossible for me to enjoy myself because I am a worry-wort and an overprotective dog-father.

By the time the game was over with a thrilling 1-0 victory (sarcasm detected) it was 4am and my buddy had McDonalds McMuffins being delivered. With some food in my belly and a few ciders consumed I figured I would get straight to bed and wake up refreshed. That was 6 and a half hours ago and I haven't slept a wink. So while things are good right now with my coffee next to me I would imagine that I will end up paying for this frivolity at some point in the afternoon.

With my Switzerland draw I am basically guaranteed a spot in the knockout stages because the next team they play is Scotland, who is one of the worst teams in the entire tournament. If they pull off a W in that game then I will probably skip the next game in the group stages where Switzerland will face Germany. I suppose that will be the real test to see if the Swiss side really stand a chance in all of this.

I am getting almost all of this information from far better informed friends of mine because I haven't been interested in football since about 15 years ago. Oh well, it's just one more reason to go to the pub, right?

If you do know more about the Switzerland team and have some insight as to what you think my chances are of finishing in the top 4, please speak up.