World Cup Ramblings

Since the World Cup only comes around once every four years, I figured I should take the opportunity and watch some soccer played at the highest of levels. Plus, the US was playing against England and I love some me some International smack talking against countries that speak the same language. Here are a few thoughts I collected along the way:

-Before the match even started I was bother by the fact that for winning the World Cup you do not even get a cup. It's more of statue. Also, it's kind of small. As my father put it, "You get a bigger trophy for winning a bowling tournament."

-During the pre-game analysis, I have to admit I still didn't care too much who won or lost. But then the analyst from England said something along the lines of, "England expects to win, win easily and win by a good margin." And it was officially on. I wanted the Brits to go down and go down hard.

-Also someone has to explain the "exchanging of gifts between Captains" before the match gets underway. Is it like how grooms are expected to give their groomsmen a small token of their appreciation? The US gave England a flag and received a plaque in return (not sure who gets the better of that exchange).

-If you remember a couple of weeks ago I was commenting on how I've never understood the people who went to a sporting event wearing the jersey of a team not involved in current game. Well, that turns out to be an International thing, because there was a random guy holding up his Honduras scarf at the USA-England game.

-It took all of 2 minutes, but I've decided I don't like the stripe across the torso on the USA jersey. It looks like some kind of beauty pageant reject.

-Have you noticed that soccer goalies seem annoyed when they have to finally do their jobs? Every time either goalie had to step up and actually make a save they immediately got up and started screaming at their defense. Could you imagine a safety in football who got pissed every time they had to make a tackle? It would not last very long, I can tell you that much.

-That was such an easy goal given up by Robert Green that I would assume he owes somebody money. If that's not the case then he still may not want to go home for a while, cause I would also assume his house is presently under assault from hooligans.

-As I tweeted before the match, given the hype there was no way this match was ever going to end in anything but a tie. Really, soccer has a lot of things that American sports fans could get into: lack of commercials, a set time when you know the game is going to get over (the entire game was played in the same amount of time it would take for the Sox to get through 4 innings). However, we just can't get into anything that can end in ties. Even hockey realised they needed to go to shoot-outs in the regular season. We like our sports to have distinct winners and losers.