[jacketree]

as we roll on to Page 4.

Sure, there is an element of waiting for Godot (a scintillating Uruguayan striker) in watching futbol. (What on earth does "soccer" even mean?* - football makes complete sense; more so here than in the American version, which is bastardized rugby. Why were those who named the American version so enamored with punting and kicking anyway?)  

I think some of you have this all wrong.  The rest of the world could not care less whether North Americans (north of Mexico that is) embrace the sport with the statistical fervor (either TV sets or the weird obsession with stats) reserved for something like baseball.  Stay home and watch something else; and ignore those you think are trying to push soccer down your throat. This is still one of the greatest sporting events on earth, whether we get it or not.

Meanwhile, futbol fans can gather in stadiums, pubs or the couch and actually enjoy the run of play in low scoring affairs, much like my early forays into the romantic arts.  (OK, who are we kidding, much like all my forays into the romantic arts.)  This past Saturday, my son and I had several options after a late night Always Sunny in Philly marathon. Some even involved hard manual labor outside.  So it was a pretty easy decision to crash on the couch and watched Spain – Paraguay.  We always root for the plucky landlocked third-world South American nation over the Seafaring Former Overlord and that penalty kick save-a-thon drained us.  (Ditto for Ghana-Uruguay.) Scoreless most of the match, but way more exciting than watching a triple-digit NBA game, for example. I wouldn’t even call watching the smoldering ruin of Maradonna’s Argentina boring, exactly. To say that “nothing” happens is sort of silly.

I see Uruguay is getting a Dutch rub. I hope Spain beats Germany so we can have a first-timer. Part of me wanted a third title for "way to throw out the hand" Uruguay, the last southerners alive.  Or Alive! if you will.  Any national team which has in its history players that ate other players to survive a plane crash in the Andes deserved it.

I’m really not a soccer honk (refereed some AYSO games until my kids quit the sport); but I can appreciate those who are. If you want to get into it, fine.  If not, fine.


*according to Mom’s 1961 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (which is as far as my working knowledge of the English language will ever go), soccer is a noun corrupted from the French and means “Association football”.  “Football” means one of three things: 1) rugby in which the ball may be carried, kicked, or thrown, provided it is not thrown forward and which a player in possession of the ball may be tackled bodily; 2) association (soccer) in which all use of the arms or hands is prohibited except to the goalkeeper and the ball may be propelled by kicking or striking it with the head, shoulder or other parts of the body (:o) except the arms; or 3) American, in which one side is allowed undisputed possession of the ball at the moment when it is put into play…(stuff you know)…and in general, the play is more systematized and formal.

[jacketree]

as we roll on to Page 4.

Sure, there is an element of waiting for Godot (a scintillating Uruguayan striker) in watching futbol. (What on earth does "soccer" even mean?* - football makes complete sense; more so here than in the American version, which is bastardized rugby. Why were those who named the American version so enamored with punting and kicking anyway?)  

I think some of you have this all wrong.  The rest of the world could not care less whether North Americans (north of Mexico that is) embrace the sport with the statistical fervor (either TV sets or the weird obsession with stats) reserved for something like baseball.  Stay home and watch something else; and ignore those you think are trying to push soccer down your throat. This is still one of the greatest sporting events on earth, whether we get it or not.

Meanwhile, futbol fans can gather in stadiums, pubs or the couch and actually enjoy the run of play in low scoring affairs, much like my early forays into the romantic arts.  (OK, who are we kidding, much like all my forays into the romantic arts.)  This past Saturday, my son and I had several options after a late night Always Sunny in Philly marathon. Some even involved hard manual labor outside.  So it was a pretty easy decision to crash on the couch and watched Spain – Paraguay.  We always root for the plucky landlocked third-world South American nation over the Seafaring Former Overlord and that penalty kick save-a-thon drained us.  (Ditto for Ghana-Uruguay.) Scoreless most of the match, but way more exciting than watching a triple-digit NBA game, for example. I wouldn’t even call watching the smoldering ruin of Maradonna’s Argentina boring, exactly. To say that “nothing” happens is sort of silly.

I see Uruguay is getting a Dutch rub. I hope Spain beats Germany so we can have a first-timer. Part of me wanted a third title for "way to throw out the hand" Uruguay, the last southerners alive.  Or Alive! if you will.  Any national team which has in its history players that ate other players to survive a plane crash in the Andes deserved it.

I’m really not a soccer honk (refereed some AYSO games until my kids quit the sport); but I can appreciate those who are. If you want to get into it, fine.  If not, fine.


*according to Mom’s 1961 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (which is as far as my working knowledge of the English language will ever go), soccer is a noun corrupted from the French and means “Association football”.  “Football” means one of three things: 1) rugby in which the ball may be carried, kicked, or thrown, provided it is not thrown forward and which a player in possession of the ball may be tackled bodily; 2) association (soccer) in which all use of the arms or hands is prohibited except to the goalkeeper and the ball may be propelled by kicking or striking it with the head, shoulder or other parts of the body (:o) except the arms; or 3) American, in which one side is allowed undisputed possession of the ball at the moment when it is put into play…(stuff you know)…and in general, the play is more systematized and formal.