Pick a team, eat pretzels with pets and mention Didier’s dental state
How to survive the World Cup, which starts in Russia on Thursday
There’s a trick to watching a World Cup not featuring your country. Let’s face it, Bafana Bafana are no closer to qualifying for a World Cup than Malawi, so the wheeze is to pick another team, or another player, and follow them through the tournament. Admittedly, this can seem artificial. But the World Cup, which kicks off when hosts Russia play Saudi Arabia at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday, at least has the advantage of being one of the most open in living memory, so there are many second choices from which to choose. One of 10 teams could win it, so there is ample opportunity to become promiscuous for a month and, say, pretend to be a Spaniard. Brush up on your Flemish and become a Belgian or, in a cheery antidote to Afro-pessimism, get your mother to knit you a red, green and yellow scarf and become Senegalese. If your girlfriend (or boyfriend) is a Dane or a Swede, see the tournament through their eyes. In many ways such a manoeuvre is a win-win: your expectations aren’t...
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