World Cup Notes

I've been watching as many games as I can, rooting for countries I like on grounds other than soccer and rooting against countries I don't like primarily for soccer. Maybe that sounds confusing...France: the country I really love, the national football team I don't care for. I have nothing against the country Spain, but I almost despise their #2 ranked national team. Besides, when it came down to it, I found myself rooting, in general, for South American teams over European teams.

I rooted for the Yanks, certainly, until they were booted. I rooted for Mexico, until they suffered the same fate. The third team I was seriously rooting for was/is Uruguay. I had a class in college that opened my eyes to the exploitation they suffered, and when I saw they pulled an undermanned draw with France in the first game, I was hooked. They demoralized South Africa at home with a big win, then they beat Mexico for the Group A #1 seed.

Suarez and Forlan have been crazy good, with Suarez beating So. Korea in the Round of 16 game with two goals in the rain, then Suarez using his hands--and getting ejected on a red-card--to save a sure goal against Ghana as a billion people on the African continent grumbled angrily. Uruguay broke the African hearts again on penalty kicks. Not bad for a country smaller than Washington State with three million people.

The European team I root for is Germany, and watching those kids walk all over England was fun; doing that against Maradona and Argentina was surprising. I'm rooting for a Uruguay/Germany final. The Netherlands don't bother me like France or Spain, so I wouldn't be so upset.

I went on a long bicycle ride last week; (I'll post about it) from my house to the lake, about 12-14 miles round trip, down the lovely Shoal Creek Bike Trail, but at first all I was going to do was to ride down and watch the Austin Aztex Div-2 soccer match through the fence, without a ticket. I got some dirty looks, so I went the rest of the way to the lake. Here a picture of local soccer:



On the television, watching the tournament, the pitch (field) looks so big, but in that picture you get the sense that the field is smaller than it's represented on TV. What I can see watching games is the goalie jawing and yelling, and the announcers saying things like, "And the goal keepah is keeping a constant barrage of orders for his mates." Standing on the other side of that fence I finally understood that the goalie can be heard yelling by his teammates while they attack the other goal. It's that small and loud.