Allez Les Bleus!!!!

Well, the match is tonight and as a good French citizen living in Ireland, I shall sit myself down in a pub tonight (starting early because we have to get seats / it's an Irish tradition to start drinking early) and watch the match in the company of lovely people, even if they will be supporting the other team. However, I feel I need to tell you a little bit more about the context I will support my team in.

You see, such things are taken seriously around here. Pubs, people... everything is green on important match days. TV sets are brought in to work to follow matches, big screens in Board Rooms / auditoriums are switched on and phones go unanswered. Tumbleweed is commonly found on the streets. The only people who are busy are the ones pulling pints.

As I have lived in Dublin for a few years now and I am an avid sports fan following both football and rugby, my sporting life here hasn't always been easy as a result. The French contingent in Dublin is nothing to be sneered at, however we cannot compete with 1 million + people. So we DO wear our colours with pride, we DO clap (albeit politely and out of nothing but sportsmanship) when Ireland gets one over us and for the sake of survival, tend to make our own manifestations of joy rather discreet. Whatever the score, if France won and an Irishman (let's face it, most woman don't care enough to talk about the match afterwards so for arguments' sake and because of the law of probability, I shall use the term Irishman) starts taking to me, it ALWAYS was a close match and yes, Ireland played well and YES, you could have SO won that one.

Given France's rather poor performance in the qualifiers so far, I understand that the Irish think they have a shot at it. They do, in fairness. Well, they would have had a better one if we hadn't called back the Old Guard, namely Zidane (a.k.a. Zizou), Thuram etc... Now? I know you all think you're going to win it. I have seen a score of 2-1 to Ireland mentioned several times. And I'm sure it will be a close match and yes, Ireland will in all likelihood play well and YES, you could SO win that one.

But you won't.

Allez Les Bleus!!!!!!!!

PS: This post will self-destruct should Ireland win 2-1 tonight