German holiday

Zurich, 5:46 p.m.

Have just returned from Tenero, a hop, skip and commuter train from the Italian border. That's where Germany has their training base, as far as possible from other Deutsch speakers.

ALEXANDER HASSENSTEIN/REUTERS

Good time in Tenero: Jens Lehmann takes a load off.

I was talking a few nights ago to a cat who works on the website of the Swiss football federation. I was asking him what the deal is with the different parts of Switzerland, as in, the stereotypes about the French Swiss being nicer than the German Swiss, etc.

He explained the true essence of Switzerland's harmonious cultural blending to me, and it makes wonderful sense:

"The German Swiss hate the Germans. The French Swiss hate the French. The Italian Swiss hate the Italians. Basically, everybody hates everybody."

A functioning state based on mutual disgust. Sounds like everyone I dated at school. Ba-doom-boom.

The German facilities were suitably lavish. Fridges packed with free Bitberger. My only temptation was to sweep all the damn beer out on to the floor and climb into the fridge. It was 32 C in Tenero and, again, air conditioning has not yet been invented as far as the Swiss are concerned. The porno theatre just around the corner is beginning to seem like a viable evening option as long as they've got A/C. And plastic seat covers.

In actual football news, coach Joachim Loew said that all 23 of his men are available, meaning Torsten Frings has recovered sufficiently from a broken rib to start. Considering that the Turks are in a struggle to field a full 11-man side owing to a raft of injuries and suspensions, there doesn't seem much hope for them. Four incredible comebacks in a row is just too big a hill. Nonetheless, Loew wasn't providing them with any blackboard material, calling the semifinal a '50-50 game'. Er. Yeah. Right.

The real highlight of the day was the train ride down to Tenero. About three hours from Zurich, with some of the most indescibably beautiful views of the Alps, houses cascading up the mountain sides, sluice rivers coming down out of the mountains in a torrent. I had my headphones on and I had one of those perfect moments, where you've got just the right view, just the right song (in this case, Metric's sublime 'Soft Rock Star') and just the right frame of mind. Magical, all in all.

C.K.

Comments

[Jason]

Hey Cathal,

I really enjoyed your spring training blog posts back in March, and I am enjoying your current Euro 2008 blog. However, I have noticed that you do not seem to write about Spain as much as the other teams. When you do write about Spain, it is often in a derogatory tone. For example, you wrote about how David Villa annoys you.

Obviously, it is your blog and you can write about whatever you want, but since I enjoy reading your posts so much, I just wish that there was a little bit more about Spain. Certainly, there are not as many people of Spanish descent in Toronto as there are of other European nations (or maybe Spanish people, like myself, are just averse to hanging flags off of their cars and disrupting traffic across the city), but a little more info for the few Spaniards in Toronto would be great.