World Cup Fever

Nicaragua's national pasttime is baseball, but like most of the rest of the world they're crazy about futbol, too.  With daily matches in South Africa at around 5.00 a.m., 8.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m., I find myself getting into World Cup fever like everyone else.

The last time I was in a country that cared about the World Cup (yes, this is a barely veiled criticism of Americans who see "soccer" as a kids' game that otherwise is reeally booring on TV) was in 1994, the year the U.S. hosted the event for the first time.

I was in my fourth year of "exile" in Thailand, at that time living in Bangkok and in a work situation that was making me increasingly unhappy.  Therefore, I welcomed the distraction of the month-long tournament, and I felt more than just a little pride that my country turned out to be such a fine host.  (The U.S. team didn't do too badly, either, as I recall, making the semi-finals.)

So I'd head out to the bars and cafes in my neighborhood to watch the matches with other fans, Thais and Westerners alike.  Only problem was these matches were on Thai TV at 2.00 a.m. until 7.00 or 9.00 a.m. daily.  Everyone in Thailand, indeed everyone across East Asia, was going sleep-deprived.

But it was that month that I discovered World Cup football isn't always as boring as some of us say.  Yes, sometimes on TV it's just a wide shot of 22 guys kicking a tiny ball around that you can barely see.  And yes, a 0-0 draw usually ain't much of a game.

But once you get your mind set fixed on what's happening, you begin to see how exciting it can be at times, even when it's 1-1 at the half and no sign of either team pulling ahead.

If you don't believe me, I suggest patience, my friend!  Crack open another beer, enjoy the fact that they don't interrupt this 45 minute half with commericals, and wait for the next score.  Then check out the slow motion replays.  If you don't get hooked on what these amazing athletes are doing by watching all the angles of every score, then I'll eat my hat.

I watched a couple 1-1 draws this morning and yesterday.  If I don't have any skin in the game, I´ll root for the underdog.  Yesterday the underdog was Ghana matched up with Australia. While Ghana is having an excellent year, winning its first match against Serbia, and Australia was expected to be very strong, the Aussies have been struggling with their game while one of their best players was suspended with a red card in the 24th minute.  They barely managed to hold Ghana to the draw.

Then today Italy was the powerhouse vs lowly New Zealand.  It was thrilling to see the New Zealanders take the early lead, but the best they could do by the 90th minute was hold tight to that 1-1 "lead." Italy has won 44 World Cup matches while New Zealand has won none.

Meanwhile "underdog" United States managed to hold former World Cup champs England to a 1-1 draw in their first match.  Go U.S.A.!

Perhaps many Central Americans will show their support for Honduras, which is the only representative from the region, and which lost its first match against Chile.  Tomorrow the Hondurans face Spain.

Even if I go for the underdog, I gotta admit it was fun to watch Brazil kick some North Korean butt 2-1 last week.  Today the bigshot Brazilians are in the prime time 1.00 p.m. match against Ivory Coast.  Don't miss it 'cause the Brazilian fans put on a great show, too!