Sunday, July 22, 2007

Viva France!

There's such a thing as simple good manners, even among the ink-stained wretches of the press. After we'd picked out spots in the auxilery press box, Jonah and I were dismayed to see this cameraman set up on a tripod and completely block our view. You can see him in the Riot Squad video I posted. We argued about whether we should make a stink with the guy, but we ended up moving another row back, disgruntled.

Before the camera guy even showed up, Jonah leaned over to me and said something about the French arrival. I looked around for Scott French, surprised, because though he didn't have a seat in the main press box, he was determined not to leave (he ended up sitting in Simon Olivera's spot).

"No," Jonah said, "I'm talking about the guy from France."

That's when I realized that a reporter, who was obviously French, had sat down on the other other side of Arash's chair. He was speaking in French on his cell. He'd been at the Chivas USA game earlier in the week - talking to Claudio Suarez on how the league needed more players like Beckham. I nodded a hello.

Jonah and I moved just as the game started, sitting next to Danny Bueno.

The French guy, however, decided that he wasn't going to stand for the cameraman hogging the sightline.

"Move!" he said. "Get down!"

When the cameraman tried to ignore him, the guy from France took his water bottle and started squirting the cameraman with it. Sure enough, the camera guy lowered his tripod and suddenly we could all see better. The reporters applauded, and the French guy took a bow.

"Leave it to the French to get the job done," said Jonah.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Exactly.

The French abso-freakin'-lutely rock.