World Cup

OK, this is definitely something that I never thought I'd say, but I'm completely hooked on the World Cup. I think I've seen at least part of every match so far - it helps to be a professor in the summer, obviously. With every passing World Cup I've been more and more interested in the World Cup, but this year is off the charts. The big turning point for me was when we were living in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics and my son and I attended the semi-finals of the soccer and rooted Nigeria on to an improbable victory. It was the first time that I got a sense of the spacing and pace and accuracy of the game - and of the insanity of the fans. It also helped this time that I just returned from South Africa and witnessed first hand the enthusiasm that gripped the country - and heard a lot of vuvuzelas before the tournament ever started. I tried to stick around another week - and thus might have been able to attend some matches - but changing my itinerary was simply too expensive. My friend Zanetta has attended three matches and has been sending me constant reports, which has kept me even more engaged. Here are a few pictures: one of her in a sweet South Africa football jersey (which I'm still kicking myself for not buying when I had the chance), one of her outside the main stadium, and one taken inside the stadium. We were texting the other day during the US-Slovenia match - I was rooting for Slovenia and she was rooting for the US (I always root against the US in all international athletic competition, except when they normally have no chance to win) - so in the end she had the last laugh. Oh, and I'm so sick and tired of the annoying whining of Americans about the mysterious bad call at the end of the game. For one thing, how can you not root for Slovenia? The US has 150 times the population of Slovenia, and the economy of the poorest US state would dwarf that of the entire country of Slovenia (it's the ultimate David vs. Golaith story). Plus, I spent a day in Ljubljana, Slovenia one time and absolutely loved it. Finally, and this has come to me from decades of being a Viking fan - if you play down to the level of a lesser opponent (not to take anything away from Slovenia, because they played great and deserved to win - but the US should have taken care of business early on) you have nothing to complain about when the breaks go against you. Quite simply, you should never have put yourself in the position where a blown call should have hurt you. I've only have forty years of the Vikings doing that, so I know what I'm talking about. Anyway, go Bafana Bafana - the team name of the South African team, which I think translates out as something like "the boys." Oh, and how sweet was the tie between New Zealand and Italy today? Amazing.