Goal!!! And it took only one goal for Spain to beat Germany in the Euro Cup finals this past Sunday and what a great game it was. Soccer is a sport I played growing up, but I lost interest in once I went to high school. I fell in love with it again during the summer of 2002 when I lived in Brussels. The World Cup was going on and it was during the tournament where I truly understood what passion for a sport and for a country really meant.

Since then I have followed the major championships and the most recent was the 2008 Euro Cup where Spain won the championship for the first time in 44 years! It was a great victory to see. I watched the game at Mickey Mantle’s Sports Bar with about 100 other fans (mostly Spanish supporters) and it almost felt like we were in Madrid! I have not come across another sport shared around the world where fellow countrymen come together to support their team than I have with soccer. After the match I saw Spaniards unite in the streets of Manhattan, singing, cheering and running with the Spanish flag everywhere. There was a great scene at Columbus Circle where the whole area was filled with a sea of people, in red, gold and black, taking in the moment.

If you’re a traveler and a sports fan, I beg you to go to a soccer game overseas, or watch in a town square, or a local bar and you will then begin to understand what I mean about passion!

-Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher