photo credit: mammaDJ

Big props to the Manchester United boys for pulling off a win over Chelsea today in the Champions League Final which ended in a brutal, rainy shootout. After following all 100+ minutes on the BBC’s World Service channel on XM, the difference between professional European soccer and professional American football emerged.

During the Final there were no referee time outs, no TV time outs, no commercial breaks, no half time show, no cheer leaders, no ostensible sponsorship, no family-friendly atmosphere, no multi-million dollar commercials; just ~120 minutes of solid, professional soccer (however, sometimes it didn’t come across all that professional!). It wasn’t about some commercial enterprise, it was about watching (or in my case, listening to) the best European soccer of 2008. The match didn’t even start until 10:45pm Moscow time and ran past 2:00am. Not the kind of family-friendly entertainment that is the Superbowl (but, I guess the Superbowl isn’t that family-friendly anymore, is it? Can you say “wardrobe malfunction”?).

Anyways, it’s still decidedly about the sport. I think…