!GOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!

The World Cup's one of my favorite sports events. I probably first started following it back in 94 when Roger and I watched it and wondered if we were the only people in Reno who cared. (Which is silly, we were just the only people in town who'd grown up there and were watching it.) I really started getting into it when I was in England during the last one and got to see up close and personal the enthusiasm (and psychological torture) of a nation that cares about the event. We went to a pub during an England - Argentina match and couldn't even find a place to stand. Because we were on our honeymoon, I didn't make much of an effort to watch the games, although it was easy to follow the tournament by osmosis. To a certain extent, that's the case for this tourney as well, at least in the soccer-friendly Bay Area. But I haven't really had to vicariously follow the tournament because -- and I have a confession to make -- I've turned into a World Cup fiend. I've watched at least part of a game every day since last Friday, and have managed to watch nearly a dozen games in their entirety. (Someday I won't have the flexible schedule of a graduate student, and I'll sure miss it.) So here are some of the highlights of the World Cup for me so far:

1. Trinidad & Tobago
The two best games I've watched have to be the two that I've seen these guys play, even though it wasn't until the 82nd minute of the second game that someone scored a goal. The World Cup may not be as friendly to the underdogs as the NCAA tournament, but it's still fun to see one of them play well.

2. Univision's coverage
Because we don't have cable, almost all of the non-ABC games I've watched have been on Univision. (The rest have been in bars/cafes.) Of course we all know how fun and excitable the Latin announcers can be, but they're also a lot more informed and insightful than their American counterparts (see below). At least I think they are. I only understand about every third sentence, but I do think my Spanish has improved over the past week.

3. Talking footie
It seems a lot of people around Berkeley are following the World Cup, and although I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to soccer, it's still fun to chat about it with people. When I watched the England - T&T game at the Free Speech Cafe this morning, I was sitting between someone from Portugal and someone from England. It was cool being around people who grew up with soccer culture (and weren't hooligans). The English woman was pretty anguished about the game, and would say things like "Why do I put myself through this" whenever England shot yet another ball over the crossbar.

If there are highlights, there must also be lowlights, so here are a couple:

1. Team USA
Damn. I knew they were overrated, but who would have guessed they were that overrated. It would be premature to toll the death of the (latest) arrival of US soccer, but if they play even half as badly against the Italians as they did against the Czech Republic, well .. there's always 2010.

2. ESPN/ABC
I get that soccer isn't very popular here, so it may be a while before a Vin Scully of soccer announcing comes along. But for God's sake, get Dave O'Brien off the air! He is an even bigger embarrassment to our nation than our team. My personal favorite quote so far is "Michael ... er ... David Beckham can really bend the ball when he kicks it." At least he's done his research. And the rest of Disney's crack team of announcers isn't that much better.

3. Ronaldo
I realize the television adds 10 pounds, but my man looks thick. If your own president is calling you fat and questioning your conditioning, I think you have a problem. I certainly didn't drop all that money on your jersey when I was in Brazil to have you leave the first game before halftime.

So I'm really excited that this is only week 1 of 4, and there's much soccer yet to be watched. So raise a beer to the good folks in Germany (because the poor saps in the stadiums can only drink Budweiser) and the 10,000,000 prostitutes who've joined them and salute the single biggest sporting event on the planet!