World Cup

I’m sorry to have been away. But, you see, it’s World Cup time. Soccer time. It doesn’t mean a thing to most a Americans. But to we few who think football is really a game that is played with the feet, World Cup time is the pinnacle of the sports year. Actually it takes place only once in four years. This year has been especially grand since for the first time Americans can, if they wish, see all thirty-two games on television, thanks to ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. So far I’ve watched one game a day for a total of thirteen games. I will probably continue to do so until the final match is played in Berlin.

The U.S. team has not been stellar so far. They lost to the Czechs in the first game, 3-0 and tied the Italians in the second game, 1-1. The one goal was a gift from Italians, an own goal. Tomorrow they had better play a more polished game and score some goals or they can sit in the stands and watch the rest of the World Cup go by.

There have been some very interesting events during the competition. Today the Ivory Coast, victims of civil war for twenty-seven years, beat Serbia-Montenegro 3-2. Their first time that they have gotten to the World Cup. And Angola got a brilliant game from players that are called the Black Antelope. Also their first time qualifying to play in the World Cup. Just a couple of the stories that make this event such a pleasure for millions of people (other than Americans).