World Cup

Just some random thoughts about the World Cup...
- I like it...alot.
- There aren't many things that will draw me to sit on the couch for 6 hours straight like the two quarterfinal games yesterday...I recall the same interest in the NFC/AFC Championship games, and the Semifinals of the Final Four on Saturday.
- Even though the Italians and Portuguese flop and cry more than any NBA player ever, I've learned to deal with it, and it's cool when the ref calls them out for it. Racist note here: You rarely see predominantly "anglo" nations dive, writh in pain on the ground, then get up and run a 4.4 second 40 withing 5 seconds of said dive...England, Germany, USA, Netherlands are all pretty stand up about the whole faking injury thing to gain an advantage.
- Normally the players are pretty courteous about giving folks the benefit of the doubt, so the other team will voluntarilly kick the ball out to stop play during an injury...but Portugal faked so much, particularly when England was on a run, that England quit being the gentleman...much to the ire of Portugal's star...I was glad England called their bluff.
- The world is flat. When I was a kid, I didn't know their was soccer outside of my local rec league. My son has Crespo's jersey (Argentina), Renaldinho's jersey (Brazil), Henrey's jersey (Arsenal, club team, but of French fame), and v. Nistelrooy's jersey (ManU, club team, of the Netherlands). He wears them constantly, with pride. Most of his friends know who these guys are, how good they are, and at his school (albeit a soccer power in Florida) these 4 guys are as recognizable as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Payton Manning, and Barry Bonds.
- Now that it's almost over, there's NO WAY the USA was the 5th best team going into this tournament. I think they ranked us high to raise awareness and hope and get TV ratings up in the largest TV market in the world...or some other reason...but those teams who played yesterday would all eat us for lunch.
- Add "go to the world cup" to one of the things I want to do before I die.