There are three sports channels that come with the cable package I have: ESPN, EuroSport, and Sport5 (it's the sports channel for the country). ESPN and EuroSport are the standard fare, but on Sport5 I am currently watching two teams of 12 year-old girls playing soccer against each other on half a pitch. What's even weirder is that there is a huge crowd there cheering for them. They seem more into than the fans of the Chicago Fire ever were. The game just ended and now the sports-announcer-guy is shoving the mic in the face of the best player from the winning team and interviewing her as if she is a professional soccer player. Her answers are so cliched that she certainly sounds like a pro.
Sport5 tends to be a mix of the most popular sporting events in the country (like the best soccer and basketball teams playing one another, top spanish league soccer, et cetera) mixed with sporting events that wouldn't even be aired by cable access in the states. The difference is, Sport5 is well funded so they bring a huge production value to these sports that nobody but people's parents would normally care about.
It's making me think how this is like a movie come true for these kids. This little 12 year-old girl is on national television after scoring the goal that won the big game. Wasn't this every kids dream after seeing The Mighty Ducks? This could never happen in America, but here these little girls really are being cheered on by a huge crowd of fans (with giant flags, and drums, and in-unison cheers) and then being interviewed for playing a good game afterward. I wonder if reality is as good as the dream.