Only 24 hours remain until the start of the world sports fiesta called Mondial. Indeed, only after a day the heart of the earth will beat in the rhythm of football matches. Ppeople sitting at tables in the company of friends and beer all around the world will argue in front of the TVs: “Messi or Maradona”, “Brazil or Argentina.” There will be forecasts and comments and maybe the world will forget about its problems at least for a month...
How Greeks will spend this month? How far have they come with the preparation for the biggest soccer fiesta in which they themselves participate?
Let's start with the following. Many of the men have already sworn to devote their free time entirely to “the round goddess”. Wives, girlfriends and other goddesses will have to wait ... For a month. Unless they wish to join their husbands.
So, to see for ourselves how the preparations for the “feast of men” are going we visited one of the bars, which plans to host the jealous pilgrims of the ball. It’s the cafeteria of sports and literature profile Floral we are speaking of. Floral is located in Exarchate Square, downtown in Athens. The owner George Thalassinos told us about the rich program, which was prepared in connection with the World Cup and the atmosphere in which the Greeks will immerse: “In Greece, the tournament will certainly go in a hot atmosphere. Not only because our national team plays this time in the World Cup. There are many fans of Argentina and Brazil too. Not only Greek, but Brazilian and Argentinian. There will be fans of Uruguay in the cafeteria. There are many players of these nationalities who play in the Greek team. They will be here to support their teams. Many nationalities will come together. These football games are always interesting. They are like the science of peoples” – the man is laughing. “We, the Greeks, will certainly support Spain and Serbia because our cultures are similar. We would support Bulgaria if it was playing.” That’s what George Thalassinos told me and I have to admit that his answer flatters me. While we were chatting about the football and the Greeks I surprisingly found a brochure lying on the barplot, containing a long list of cultural events that the cafeteria for “coffee and books” is planning to organize. Some have been even organized already. On Saturday, after the game between the teams of Greece and South Korea one of the best sports journalists in the country Christos Sotirakopoulos will present the favorite and the forecasts for this year’s sports event.
In the cafeteria the viewers will be able to watch the matches on three large TV screens and also on a huge screen on the wall. Thalassinos proudly told me that the night before our meeting the football commentator Yannis Dyakoyanis was in the cafeteria – the man who followed 13 World Cup championships, 8 of which he has announced. In the special brochure entitled Mundial, containing a long list of planned activities in Floral I found out and the movies Maradona of Emir Kusturica and Pele Forever of Anibal Massaini Neto. Selected movie from the International Short Films Festival about football will be shown before each important match. Not only that all the matches will be transmitted here for one month, but journalists, players, coaches and people from the world of culture and art will analyze everything related to the World Cup. There will be organized and subbuteo – table football tournaments.
Whether he is worried about any unpleasant scenes, George Thalassinos says: “We have a clientele of the highest culture. You can see how everyone here reads books or works something on his computer. I have no worries. Things will be all right.”
I look around and notice that this is really so. Every second visitor looks in a newspaper or computer. I see a group of students preparing for the session in the distance corner. “These are students of Pandit” – Thalassinos explained with a smile. I notice a separate room behind the students – library. The place really deserves to be called “Coffee and books” ... Over 140 cultural events, more than 70 film-shows and countless parties have taken place here in the last year. Once the café was known as coffee shop. “It is almost a historic place,” explains George to me. “It was built in 1933 and is one of the first buildings in town built in the bauhause style.” Floral is just one of the options for those who can not fit the dynamite called the World Cup in 4 walls ...
And for those who think that can calmly deal with their emotions between four walls, the option is…at home. As an old rule, they will burst in football emotions in the company of relatives, friends and acquaintances and tones of beer, chips, pizzas and all kinds of catering. United in front of the TV screens unknown companies will become family ... The homes of friends known for their love of parties will again become popular meeting places. Friends, whose love of parties has passed the tests of time. Because the program includes everything. Shouting at the screen and broken objects in the toughest moments to the hosts’ horror... But this is an expression of passion and emotion, without which any sporting event of that magnitude could not get away.
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