{"id":252,"date":"2008-06-30T10:33:37","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T09:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/?p=252"},"modified":"2008-06-30T12:22:41","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T11:22:41","slug":"gaa-football-euro-soccer-sunday-sport-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/30\/gaa-football-euro-soccer-sunday-sport-day\/","title":{"rendered":"GAA football & Euro soccer: Sunday = Sport Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had a great day for sports on Sunday. By far the most thrilling event was our first GAA match in person — and better yet, at the national stadium, Croke Park! Here’s the link for a short slideshow of our day at Croker, with plenty of information in the descriptions:
\nPhotos of Croke Park, 29 June 2008, on flickr<\/a><\/code><\/p>\n

The match was County Dublin versus County Westmeath, in the semi-final of the Football Championship for the Irish province of Leinster. <\/p>\n

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It was a close match, with many lead changes<\/a>. I’ve watched quite a bit of GAA football on television, and I understand most of the rules. Like soccer, however, it’s hard to grasp the strategies and the flow of the game without seeing the whole pitch in person.<\/p>\n

The consensus of newspaper and radio reviewers was that both Westmeath and Dublin played poorly and that Dublin fans were half-hearted and quiet. Indeed, I did not see some of the breathtaking plays and individual efforts that amazed me as I watched other matches on TV. But I admired the physical effort and the courage of the players nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Sunday evening brought the finals of Euro 2008 to our television. We were tempted to just stay at a pub from the end of football (4pm) through the soccer (which began at 7:45pm) — but that would have made for a very tough Monday morning. The final score, 1-0, looks boring<\/a>, but the tension between the two teams kept me humming. And I wanted Spain to win!<\/p>\n

Watching the final after also witnessing the climbs of both teams was a much richer experience than I’ve had with soccer before. It’s hard to love a sport when you watch only its championship round. That’s like reading only the last three chapters of a novel. You can admire the skill of the writing, but you’re not going to care about the characters or the plot — even if you did read the Cliff Notes.<\/p>\n

Finally, a request of you, the reader. <\/strong> Please VOTE in the current poll regarding the Croke Park slideshow (linked above). If the slideshow feature of Flickr shows you our descriptions by default, then it will be a great tool for showing you our future photo sets. If it does not work as I hope, then I can find another tool that will give you the information-rich Bugle experience that you’ve come to expect. <\/p>\n

You can vote right here, or in the sidebar. (FYI, the first description is: “The weather alternated between gorgeous sun and blustery rain for a few hours before the match. We would get caught in one more shower before the match, as we drank our pints just outside the stands.”) Thanks!
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had a great day for sports on Sunday. By far the most thrilling event was our first GAA match in person — and better yet, at the national stadium, Croke Park! Here’s the link for a short slideshow of our day at Croker, with plenty of information in the descriptions: Photos of Croke Park, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,7,4],"tags":[83,79,760,81,84,64,76,77,759,82,85,63,80,78],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bakkerbugle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}