USA v. Brazil: Wipeout!

So I have never really been the most loyal, most consistent soccer fan. I “played” in high school for two years meaning that there were no cuts on the C and B teams. My memory is that we played the games in the dead of winter and that on the rare occasions when I was allowed on the field I ran around (albeit slowly) with my hands shoved down the front of my pants for warmth. These are not good memories. It cemented a lesson I have espoused all my life, which is that “Lutherans Don’t Play Soccer.” Good rule generally.

I pretty much ignored soccer for the next 21 years but on my 15th anniversary my wife and I were down in Dallas. I was working on a big case and could not come home and she flew down and it was an incredible heat wave and draught down in Dallas. It was 108 every day and we had a long weekend for the World Cup. It was awesome. We went to several bars and drank cold beers and watched soccer. it was normally with a large Mexican/American crowd and it was...exciting. Really exciting. Between the booze and the occasional screams of GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL! It was hard to beat. I wonder oif my memory is correct because that should have been around 1998. Was that even a World Cup year? I could check on the net but where is the sport in that?

So today i was pretty excited to watch the U.S. play Brazil. The American coach was on the cusp of being fired but then we unexpectedly knocked off Spain and were playing for the championship against the Brazilian team. The Confederation Cup? Never heard of it but it is supposed to be a pretty big deal. Perhaps the step below the World Cup. It was awesome because we were up 2-0 at halfeven though the ball was in our half almost the entire time. We capitalized on two breaks and looked golden.

Until the start of the second half whe they scored in like a nano-second. Then they kept pounding on us and scored again but with a few seconds left I thought we might get overtime. That was wrong and they buried us with a few minutes left in the game. It was harsh but they were far and away the better team. Hard to watch. The media will call it progress but we were outmanned badly.

So next year...2010. The World Cup again. It looks like we will qualify and hopefully be competitive. We will need a lot of help but it will be fun. Perhaps we should all take the summer off next year. Just a thought.