World Cup Fever...

This is late in coming for sure, but I already miss the World Cup and needed a reminder of it. Tell me a game that brings more countries together for one sporting event. American football? Baseball?

Nope.

Soccer really is the only international game that truly can lay claim to a series of matches that can be called the "World" cup. The soccer behomeths like Germany, Brazil, and Argentina are ever-present during World Cups, but it's the little guys I like to watch more. The US, Japan, Australia, etc. These teams are playing with their hearts because they want to win no matter how elusive that win may be.

Usually, once the semi-finals start I lose my zeal a bit. It's really the beginning knock-out stages that are more dramatic. You have all these underdogs that might just make it through if they are the better team on the day. Then again, it's hard to beat drama like Zidane's headbutt. That's another story though.

I was sorry to see the US tumble down like they did. Myself, just like many others, after watching the US performance in 2002 thought that maybe we have a chance to be a world-class team. Maybe we do, but after our recent round of matches, maybe we were just really lucky in 2002. We sure as hell had an easier table to get through back then. Ah well.

In the photo of above, we're all wearing England shirts. Since the boys are half-English you gotta support that stuff. Plus, I love the English squad. They just manage to break my heart everytime. We took this shot at 6:00 a.m. on England's opening day this World Cup. In the end, England broke my heart once more. Sigh.

Anyway, I look forward to the next one. The boys will be 4 years old by then. Wierd.

By the way, extra street-cred/punk rock points for you if you got the Air Miami reference in the title of this entry.