With the exception of Pakistan, India, Israel/Palestine, and the US, it seems that everybody's attention is riveted on the World Cup soccer matches. Even the Russians are rioting in the streets over the games. I hate to think what kind of reception the defending champion French team will receive when they return home after being eliminated by Denmark.
Lance Knobel epitomizes the European view of the game.
"There are quite a few more important things happening in the world today than this football game, but at the moment I can't remember what they are." That's how John Motson introduced the BBC's coverage of today's England-Argentina World Cup match. I can remember some of those other events, but I have to confess that I haven't paid much attention to them today.
Meanwhile, H. D. Miller provides a pretty good description of many Americans' view. (Scroll down to "Miller's Unified Field Theory of World Entertainment".)
Soccer is so boring that the fans have to resort to creating their own violence and mayhem in the stands as an anecdote to the boredom induced by the glacial pace of the game. Yet when your basic English soccer hooligan is exposed to the controlled violence and mayhem of NFL football, he loves it, even as he behaves himself in the stands. How else to explain the fact that the annual NFL pre-season game in Wembley Stadium in London always sells out to 85,000 football-crazed Englishmen?
With the US team doing pretty well, soccer news is slowly bubbling up towards the front of at least a few papers' sports sections. That will come to a screeching halt a) immediately if the team is eliminated or b) about a week after they win the whole show.
That's good. Soccer, it turns out, is one of the few sports that is left to kids in this country. Remember the "soccer mom" from the last presidential election? Yup, soccer moms are carting the little darlings off to run their hearts out week in, week out, in both fall and spring soccer. And that's it. They run, they learn ball control and teamwork, and they provide some entertainment for their parents. There's no pot of gold awaiting them when they make it to the professional leagues, and there's not even much hype at the college level.
And, trust me on this, kids who continue playing soccer through high school end up fit. Soccer is about running. Not waddling up to the line, not doing little dances in the end zone, not standing around in the outfield. Running.
We have baseball and football and basketball and hockey to go nuts over. Let's just leave soccer for the kids.
It's a good thing that my reader isn't a San Jose Earthquakes fan.
11:03:55 PM 
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