Many coffee shops are open all night to serve customers who are football fans - Photo: CONG TRIEU
For many football fans, the halfway point of the Euro seems to have passed in a flash. There have been complaints like "Suddenly realizing Euro 2024 will no longer have 8pm matches, so sad" and even tear-jerking stories.
Mr. NAM (coffee shop manager)
Play, eat, study in front of the screen
At 11pm, the row of coffee shops along Huong Lo 3, Tan Phu District (HCMC), are still brightly lit. Customers are pouring in and out of the shops, and it is rare to find an empty table.
A large television was placed in the middle of the restaurant, the music blaring mixed with the enthusiastic commentary of the first round of 16 match between Switzerland and Italy. The whistle blew, and fans clapped and cheered for their favorite team.
Watching the match with a group of university friends, Hung (Tan Phu district) shouted hoarsely every time a team passed the ball.
Since the opening day of Euro, Hung has not missed any match. Only when there is a match to watch together, Hung will go to the restaurant. Otherwise, he will turn on his laptop and illegally watch it online.
For the past two weeks, Hung's life has been almost always in front of the screen, even when eating and sleeping. Not only does he not miss any matches, but he also reads information about the teams and "bets" for fun.
Hung is very passionate about and enjoys playing soccer. He once applied for a sports university but failed! He boasted that he had dozens of soccer uniforms and a collection of dozens of cups and medals of all kinds from the "street" soccer tournaments he had participated in.
Afraid of missing the match in the middle, Ngoc (a second-year student at a university in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) took a risk and had a cup of iced black coffee to stay awake. Ngoc rubbed her head and pulled her hair every time a player from the reigning champion Italy team dribbled down the ball but missed a chance to score.
The two teams finished the first half break, Ngoc immediately urged his friends sitting at the same table: "Get in the game, get in the game. I've invited you." So the whole group was caught up in another game of Lien Quan.
"Playing games for fun, or rather to relieve sleepiness while waiting for the second half of the match. I had an exam the other day but missed my appointment with my friends so I took my books to the cafe to study, but I really didn't study a single word" - Ngoc laughed.
Lost everything with the ball
But following each match is not necessarily because of passion for football, many people search for information, consult score predictions and then strain their eyes every night to follow the rhythm of the ball rolling just to bet. "Everything is gone", a young man wearing a technology motorbike taxi driver uniform said loudly in the middle of the shop.
After a while of talking, this friend refused to give his name, only saying that he had never liked watching football, and was not familiar with gambling. But more than a week ago, since he started driving at night, his friends invited him to watch and "make a light bet to ease his back pain". The first few bets he won were quite easy, almost winning every time he played.
The streak of five consecutive days with the worst results being a draw and the rest winning made him excited, it seemed like earning money was less difficult than driving. So it was no longer a few tens of thousands of dong to bet on the score, the amount of money bet increased to several million and then tens of millions of dong.
"After three years of driving, I saved up more than 40 million, and now I've lost it all. I ran out of money, pawned my car, and lost it all" - he said sadly and regretfully.
"Please help me write down this bet, if I lose I'll come over and share it with you!" - the woman sitting in the corner of the coffee shop seemed to be pleading. After haggling for a while, the woman's face looked angry. One look and you could tell the other side didn't agree. She stuffed the bill under the bottom of her coffee cup, paid for the drink, and left.
The female customer is no stranger to this coffee shop. The story is quite familiar, some people even call her "the gambling ghost".
Mr. Nam - shift manager of a coffee shop in Binh Tan district (HCMC) - said that cases like this woman's are common at the shop, especially when there is a big football tournament like Euro. At almost the same time, in addition to Euro, there is also the South American football tournament Copa America, so it is not strange for gambling "ghosts" to stay up all night at the coffee shop.
Mr. Nam said that he was afraid of being implicated, so he discussed with the owner many times not to open all night anymore, but because there were so many regular customers who asked, he had to comply. Even when there was an additional charge for staying open all night to broadcast live football, the restaurant was still very crowded.
"Teacher" guess the bet!
Needless to say, social networks are bustling with odds and score predictions. There are quite a few accounts claiming to be "teachers" predicting odds and match scores, with the style of only giving opinions and personal perspectives that are harmless.
Since it's all public, anyone who needs it can refer to it, there's nothing to lose, believe it or not! The funniest thing is that if the prediction is wrong, there's immediately a reason to blame, from the referee, the player who plays too individually, to the bad coach, even FIFA doesn't spare anyone.
If you guess wrong, you get criticized, but if you guess right, you only get compliments? Hearing the question, T. - the owner of a TikTok and YouTube channel that recently participated in predicting football scores - laughed and said that besides compliments, there are many other benefits. Without hiding anything, T. listed things like increased views, followers, and advertising money from football betting sites disguised as online game portals, in general, a lot of things.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ke-khoc-nguoi-cuoi-theo-qua-bong-euro-2024-20240701235731301.htm
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