One of the fun things about traveling is observing how people follow sports around the World. When I was in Canada, the Euro Cup 2012 was just beginning. I was surprised that there was such a buzz in the office about a sporting event in Europe.

Toronto is very similar to California in that it is a melting pot of different cultures. In our office in Canada we have workers from Germany, the Czech Republic, Greece and several other countries in Europe.

However, unlike here where we have a similar demographic the sporting atmosphere was very different. When we went out to lunch, we would see cars driving down the street flying flags from different countries that were participating in the Euro Cup.

In the office there were also flags in some of the cubicles, below is the Czech Republic flag that was proudly displayed by one of my colleagues.

A good sized group of employees also met after work one afternoon to watch the finish of the Czech Republic vs. Russia match. We were all disappointed in the loss to Russia, but had a great time watching the match together. The group of Russian fans across the restaurant from us were quite a bit happier though.

This all made me think back to trips to England and South America where on game day there are flags flying everywhere.

Coming back home, it hardly seems that an important sporting event is going on in Europe. At least some of the games are being shown on ESPN, so I have been able to watch a few more games.

Oh wait, I haven’t mentioned what sport this is. The sport being contested in the Euro Cup is Football or rather Soccer to us Americans.

At least Soccer is one sport that Americans are interested in. Try finding a Cricket match or a Sumo tournament on American TV.

So, who will win it all?

Steven