Irritable? Sad? Feeling empty? It could be World Cup withdrawal.
The post-mortem on South Africa’s World Cup drew a near perfect score, but locals are now grappling a once far-off question after a month of celebration and rare unity: How are you going to get your life back?
With a touch of the blues, say experts.
“This World Cup has provided us with a fantastic natural high,” Cape Town psychologist Helgo Schomer said.
“Now we have to replace it because within 31 days and a few games you get hooked,” he said.
As many as 40 percent of British soccer fans, their days no longer filled with World Cup matches, are at risk of Post Tournament Depression (PTD), according to a survey yesterday.
The reality of having to wait more than a month for the new soccer season and until 2014 for the next World Cup has left many fans feeling flat.
The average British male thought about soccer 43 times a day during this year’s World Cup and watched nearly 30 hours of the World Cup during the past month, the survey found.
The poll, for a shopping Web site, shows that nearly a quarter of respondents missed or were delayed for important appointments during the tournament.
Fifteen percent of people abstained from sex or canceled dates to avoid missing matches, and 6 percent of relationships actually broke down as a result of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, All of South Africa’s social barriers had come down during the month-long tournament, which is not often seen, Schomer said.
“We are a social animal. We need to admit that something like this in a group in a stadium with 60,000 plus people cannot be replaced by anything else,” he said.
“Humans among humans are the most happy people around. We forget about our worries. Nothing like a World Cup event alleviates worry about the mundane,” he added.
Some fans were already feeling the blues before the last whistle on Sunday.
“I’ve already started suffering from post-World Cup depression,” said Melanie George lining up for the Cape Town fan park eight hours ahead the final on Sunday.
And next?
“Sulk. Save for 2014,” she said.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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