Sunday 31 May 2026
Last night I stayed up to watch the champions league final. In my timezone it was quite late at night. It was the first full game of soccer I had watched in some time. Its now much more common for me to watch highlights on youtube for all the sports I want to watch. The highlights go for around 10-15 minutes1. There are some pros and cons too mainly consuming sports via highlights.
The main pro is just saving time and being able to watch at the time of your convenience. A very 21st century kind of option.
There are many more cons. I like to be surprised so need to avoid the results. You also lose some feel for how the game actually flowed and ebbed. You also don’t see plays where there is not a major impact to the game, so for an example in basketball it biases you to seeing almost all 3 point shots going in and you don’t often see good defence that results in a hard shot being missed 2. There is less dramatic build up and you feel less invested in the outcome, except maybe if you are strong supporter of one of the teams.
Watching the game last night, I’m not really sure how I feel about the experience. It was very late in the end, especially with the extra time and penalties. I was also going for Arsenal despite not being an Arsenal fan and they led for most of the match before PSG equalized. They also lost in penalties which is probably outside of being embarrassed say 6-0 or something would have to be the worst way to lose. What I will say is that it’s the most nervous and excited I’ve been while watching a game for a long time but whether or not that feeling was worth staying up so late for, I’m not sure. I do miss the highs and lows, the anticipation from when I followed a soccer team and would attend their matches live. Its been a while since I’ve felt that way. I don’t know whether its a good or bad feeling, but its definitely a feeling.