Soccer: World Cup

09:47 PM CDT on Monday, July 3, 2006

By STEVE DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News

Smoking is banned at the World Cup. Well, kinda.

Seems it is more of a guideline than a rule.

"No Smoking" signs are posted throughout all 12 World Cup venues. But anywhere there is a sign, there is sure to be someone puffing away close by.

People have caught on that it's nothing more than a FIFA request in and around the grounds.

Smoking is something of an anomaly here. Germans are generally health-conscious people. And they rightfully pride themselves on protecting the environment.

But they smoke like bachelors on poker night.

While most EU nations, including Britain recently, have banned smoking in public areas, Germans remain free to puff at their leisure in most places – and that pretty much includes World Cup matches.

England falls, but fans don't lose it: Something odd happened after Saturday's England loss in Gelsenkirchen: nothing much.

An estimated 80,000 English fans showed up in the city, watched, got bummed – and went home with little trouble.

I did hear and see something curious in the postmortem hours. It almost seems as if some of the English were, deep in their souls, relieved.

Even the heavily inebriated train station refugees were in surprisingly good humor.

I have this feeling that, somehow, they had rediscovered their comfort zone. A couple of young lads seemed to agree. They acknowledged that some fans are in their element when England "battle hard, bleed for their team, but lose in penalties."

I remember reading just before the tournament that nobody suffers as well as the English. I think I get it now.