Support my team, or go to your room

Is it wrong to hope that your children grow up to support the same team(s) as you? Is it bad to try and influence them? Does it even make a difference? My father certainly never pushed me to follow any particular team, or play any particular sport. Come to think of it, he's never evinced the remotest interest in watching sport, and yet, here I am.

I didn't set out to influence Santi, but it just so happened that we were buying him a knitted snake from a craft show in Bogota and one of them was in the colours of West Ham United. The snake doesn't get much attention these days, but it's always there at the side of the bed.



Then there was the football shirt, which I admit, may seem like a fairly strong push, but it was a present (thanks again, Greg and Zoe) and he only really wears it when we watch a game together.




And since we've arrived in Sydney, we haven't seen any games because of the time difference. Maybe it's better that way -- so far this season we've had dodgy last-minute transfers, takeovers, a change of managers, injuries galore and players who say they're visiting their sick grandma in the Isle of Wight then jet off to South Carolina for a weekend of wild partying. And through all of this, most of the performances have been, as one poster at my favourite WHU website so aptly put it, 'beyond toilet'. On the weekend we saw the highlight of a very bleak season -- after that we went on to lose 3-4. We are going down. Man it sucks when your team is crap.

Anyway, enough blubbing. I do wonder what sports Santi will end up playing, and who he'll end up supporting. What will happen when Australia take on Colombia? Mainly I hope that one day we can sit down together with a beer and cheer on the same side. What's so bad about that?