Fun With France and Setanta

Call the mental health journals. I think I’ve discovered the cure to depression, bipolar disorder and pretty much any other mental illness, at least for soccer fans:

Have people watch old games when they already know their beloved team is going to win.

Seriously. I signed up for Setanta Broadband late last week and watched a couple of old France games over the weekend (France-Italy from September and France-Greece from November.) It was the most bizarrely hypnotic and soothing experience. You know the outcome, so there’s no tension. But you’re watching the team you love, so it’s still fun and interesting. Not unlike re-reading old love letters from somebody you’re still crazy about.

Just for fun, I get to watch Willy Sagnol’s distinctive, golf-club-style kicks as he latches onto yet another ball from within inches of the touchline and sends it back into play. (The man is SO underrated.) Or to watch Florent Malouda’s energizer bunny activity. Or to see Thierry Henry play with defenders, like a cat with a rodent he’s not ready to put out of its misery yet…

Damn, I love this team.

I was going to hold off on signing up for Setanta, because I’m totally upset that they’re not showing the Lyon-Roma Champions League game this week. (I was going to wait till AFTER the game to sign up. Because withholding their money for a week? Well, THAT would show them.) But in the end I broke down.

The deciding factor was the on-demand archives, which let me watch the games I want to watch when I want to watch them (assuming the games are in their archives, of course.) I can also stop watching at any point and start back up later — a good deal for somebody with a tiny little attention span like mine.

I can’t say for sure that it’s a good investment for you, but it was a good investment for me. I absolutely hate having to rely on wonky technology (like the footy pirates or the French Football Federation) and/or the kindness of strangers (like Setanta-owning bartenders) to see my team play.

And Setanta seems to be pretty good on France coverage. Their archives have every game since World Cup with the exception of Faroe Islands and — for the moment, at least — Argentina. (I still have hope here, at least for Argentina.)

But at any rate. I need to go now. I have a date with France-Georgia.