Saturday, June 17, 2006

World Cup, grass and slipping

I know I'm not a professional soccer player. I know that I don't play on fancy fields with seating for 70,000 screaming fans. I play in front of the subs and someone's girlfriend. I don't play on fancy grass. I don't know about grass other than green and some of it grows faster.

But why in tarnation am I watching so many people slipping in the World Cup? I've lost my feet before. I'll do it again this fall on a rainy day. And I know charging and hitting the brakes, sometimes you slide. But are these fields right? I've seen more divots in the World Cup than at the anger management class' golf outing.

I'm not sure if it's a single stadium issue or what. I just know that it seems to me like a lot of people are just slipping at odd moments and falling down. I'm not talking fouls and dives. I'm plenty familiar with what soccer players can come up with. Maybe I just haven't watched enough international soccer.

finally started missing games

I knew it was coming. I knew I'd never last trying to watch each World Cup game. But I almost tried, and that's what counts.

I think it started Sunday, whatever game came first. I didn't watch it. Up to that point, I'd certainly watched a fair portion of each game, and I did start the day with whatever game was well into the late minutes. I was also doing my morning thing, the smoke and the coffee mostly, possibly some bathroom issues.

Mexico and Iran, I mostly saw all of. We were meeting friends for brunch, so we waited till half time to haul ass downtown to the brewery. We had a perfect table near a tv, and of course the staff was fine with me changing the channel. We were the only customers watching the tv anyway. However, we couldn't have any sound as there was a jazz band playing louder than was necessary. Also, the bloody marys tasted like sweet ketchup. The beer was awesome, but that's the best thing they have going for them. I used to work there, and I noticed that none of the Mexicans were there. The staff was all two extremes of human coloration with none of the middle tones. They were home watching their side win three points.

I really wanted Iran to do well, mostly because our fearless leader is being kind of a butthole to them right now. I'd love for them to ditch the mullahs and just deal with the fact that we aren't all going to be equally religious, but we certainly have our people here in the US that need to hear that same message. That isn't to say I wanted them to win. I can't help but want the cup to come to the Americas. I'm partial to my own side, and I'll extend that hemispherically.

Speaking of Americas, Argentina beat the ever loving crap out of Serbia and Montenegro. I'd have loved to see that game, but the sleeping and a late errand disallowed all soccer viewing except for today's Mexico match against Angola.

Mexico versus Angola, so of course there's the Americas. But I've loved watching all the new teams. It seems like there have been a lot of first time teams, and they are of course all the underdogs. I often find that I will pull for the underdog when I don't have some other more sensible reason for picking a team. Unless they're playing the US, I always love to watch Mexico. I can't say I've seen that many games, and I'm sure if I have, it's probably been against the US. Both teams played admirably. Poor Angola never quite got the attack they needed. Mexico, for all their effort, just couldn't beat the goal keeper. That man alone kept Angola from giving up the game. The whole team certainly played well, but Mexico was better today, even if the game ended in a draw.

I'm kind of worried about tomorrow. US is playing Italy in a game that we really need to win. I'm going to be extremely disappointed if they piss the game away like they did in the first game. If they do, I'm going to send them an angry email. It will make them feel so bad that they will hang up their cleats and leave soccer. That isn't a concern though, because they are going to win. They are then going to beat Ghana and eventually advance to the final round where they will either beat England or bust their asses to a draw against either Brazil or Mexico. So say I.