The World Cup blur

Man that was fun.

I NEVER thought that those words would come from my mouth spurred on by watching countless games of football (soccer). I can honestly say that my total minutes of soccer watched, live or otherwise, has at least been multiplied by 5. (I watched a frickin Sweden-Togo match) (They tied).

I really gave it a try this time. I learned ALL of the rules, realized that EVERYONE (not just Americans) bitches about the diving and I found a new appreciation for a game that I used to compare to a trip to the dentist. It is not a perfect game but which American one is?

Baseball? - no steroids in soccer

Basketball? - no Jordan rules or "the last 5 minutes of a game lasting a half hour" in soccer

American Football? - what exactly is holding? and excessive celebration? and why the hell do kickers get to decide everything?

I know, I know, there isn't any scoring. But how many Lion games (for you Detroit people) have you been to with a 21-7 final (Lions with 7 of course) final score? That's a 3-1 final in soccer, pretty common. The ties are a little frustrating, but we dealt with hockey ties until recently.

That's my defense of the game. I will admit that my attitude may have been swayed by the GREAT atmosphere throughout Germany for the past month. You could go anywhere in any city and there would have been someone from whatever team playing with flags and facepaint with all the passion of a Spartan on UM-MSU football Saturday. You really haven't seen a celebration until you see the Ecuadorians let it all hang out, trust me.

I will miss the World Cup. I know that this is something I will never experience again because you can't replicate this in the US unless all of the games are played in, say, Michigan and the top ten biggest cities have their hotels filled with passionate people from around the world.

Brazilians in Traverse City?