I can't believe Portugal won the World Cup.

Oh, wait. They didn't. (Not at the time of writing anyway.)

They advanced out of the preliminaries.

I didn't mind so much being woken this morning by screaming fans. Apparently it was a good game.

However, here we are 7 hours after the game is finished and my neighbourhood is still gridlocked. People continue to drive up and down the street screaming, honking horns, waving flags, obstructing public transit, wasting gas......

Did I mention that this has been going on for 7 hours?

It's pathetic.

I lived in the same neighbourhood when Italy won the World Cup and the massive victory celebration scarcely lasted for 7 hours. (Although it did completely shut down the street for several hours.)

I'm in awe that so many people have nothing better to do than waste fuel, time, energy and money by causing such a disturbance over a relatively mundane accomplishment. It's not even the quarter finals yet.

And don't give me that "national pride" bullshit. I didn't see anyone fanatically celebrating for their countries during the Olympics. (The neighbourhood has representative groups of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Argentinian and Brazilian.) I willing to wager good money that asking any of the horn-honking crusaders what the latest contribution of their country to the United Nations has been, I'd receive little more than a blank stare. This is not about nationalistic pride. It's about soccer and a fanatical obsession with it.

It's not like the people celebrating here actually did anything significant either. They didn't play. They couldn't even be bothered to go to the actual game. From walking by many a sports bar during games, I can safely say many of them didn't even pay much attention to the game while it was on television.

Here's their contribution: a) Buy a jersey. b) Sit around and wait for the opportunity to get in a car, drive around and advertise what a GREAT fan they are in the most idiotic fashion possible. (It really does seem to be a competition sometimes.) c) Fulfill deep seeded desire for idiocy.

HONK.