The link between emotional stress and an enhanced risk of cardiovascular death is well established. In particular, sports events such as soccer matches are capable of provoking strong emotions, which might cause a failure of the cardiovascular system, and thus a peak of death numbers in the population. Now a study published in JECH has examined the number of deaths in Germany on match days of the national soccer team during a long-term period including several tournaments. Editor Jim Dunn talks to lead author Daniel Medenwald, Institute of Medical Epidemiology, Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg. Read the full paper (for free): http://jech.bmj.com/content/68/9/869.full