world cup 2010
(part two)


everyone is gearing up to care about soccer just as they do every four years. and by "everyone", i mean people like me. i love soccer. REALLY love soccer. i think it is a wonderful game. but i am not a diehard soccer guy. i don't play it anymore. i also say that because i don't have that one club team that i root for. my one team that i can get emotionally invested in is the national team, but i don't think that gives me credit to the claim of being a diehard. i follow mls and the us national team pool guys closely enough to know who's got a legit chance of playing and making the team, but that's about it. when it comes to professional soccer, i am a sucker for stars, therefore the only matches i watch are the big time english and european league games pitting the the best against the best and the occasional champions league match in the middle of a tuesday when i happen to be off.

every four years, though, the world cup rolls around and soccer is force-fed to the sports public in the hopes that we will watch and care enough for espn to justify the billions of dollars they spent to air every match on their channels. and every four years, i care very much. as a matter of fact, i am so stoked for the us vs. england match next week that the last 7-10 days have and the next 7-10 days will absolutely crawl by. i'll try and write down a few things that interest me here between now and then in the hopes that it will help pass the time.

today, si.com's georgina turner listed her top five world cup players at each position. not surprisingly, the us doesn't get a guy on any list. i imagine that if she stretched her respective lists out to ten, only tim howard in goal would have a chance of making the cut.

those rankings provide a nice lesson in perspective for anyone (including me!) that likes to think the americans have a true chance of getting past the round of 16. how long has soccer been played? a long time, right? well, the us has never produced a world star of any significance outside of goal. ever. sure, landon is borderline recognizable at this point, but he wouldn't have his own sportscenter commercial if espn didn't own the rights to the world cup and wanted you to know at least one us player to root for. and since "we" don't have stars (really...we only have 2-3 guys with star-level talent), we have to get by on scrappy. we are the mid-majors of the world cup. it would be a really good story if we could get to the final four, but unless something crazy-ass crazy happens, we aren't going to make it.

is it possible? sure. probable? nope. (thank you, therapy, for that mantra.)

and so nasty and j. lynn and others like us will root like mad against all odds for the us to give us something to cheer about. we'll cuss at jozy and dempsey and landon because they can't finish the way rooney so often does and most likely will against the us. we'll be disappointed that the us didn't win the world cup (or, worse, didn't make it out of the group) even though we were never supposed to.

that doesn't change how awesome the month of june will be. especially the first couple of weeks of the tournament when there will be a game per day that i dvr and watch when i get home.

very rarely do i become a usa homer. i don't love the olympics. i hate singing patriotic songs in church. i wish "god bless america" didn't replace "take me out to the ballgame" at random braves games. come next saturday afternoon, though, the berserk dude with stars and stripes on his face walking around without a shirt could be me.

and you best not be rooting for england.