Copa Mundial

[Schmear]

Pretty excited for the World Cup to start, as I am every four years. No sporting event gets me more worked up. The only thing better would be if Dick Enberg broadcast the games for American TV, instead of Bob Ley. But I digress. (Is it possible to digress in only the first paragraph?)

I don't really care how the home team does. For me it's more about the best of the best in the world getting together for a month to hack each other down in hopes of getting to the final.

The first WC I really followed was in 1986. The Hand of God. Platini booting his penalty kick over the bar. The Mexican player's scissor-kick goal. Awesome stuff.

I was 16 and playing competitively. That summer, while the World Cup was going on, my select team traveled to Sweden to compete in the Gothia Cup, then billed as the world's largest youth soccer tournament. There were teams there from Iraq and Iran, Brazil, Italy, everywhere. This was at the height of the Reagan years/Cold War. We were there for two weeks; the first week we stayed with families in Helsingborg (two words: topless beaches) while training with Swedish coaches, the second week we stayed in a school dormitory in Gothenburg with teams from all over the world. There was a Polish team staying down the hall from us. Rumor was they weren't allowed to talk to us, and the looks on their faces seemed to prove that. This was while Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain.

We had people at our games booing us because we were American. We were just kids, with a small coaching staff and a few parents along for support. It was sometimes scary, but also really exciting. We ended up going pretty far in the tournament, and drawing large crowds, which surprised a lot of people because we weren't given much credit. (In fact, the few other American teams that competed that year lost most of their games.) In a small way, I was part of the generation of young American soccer players that laid the foundation for the U.S.'s international respect today.

Anyway, the World Cup, for me, is forever tied with my own brief international playing experience, and the good memories and feelings I have of meeting new people and seeing new places at such an impressionable age.

Oh and one more thing, go Brazil.

[BigDaddy]

Totally fired up as well! Been a fan for many years and love to see good games. It's amazing how soccer has grown here... you're probably right about being part of the initial spearhead... It wasn't anything close to the caliber of yours or anything, but I had an international experience playing, too.

I was in Rome, Fall 1989, just before they hosted the cup, to study architecture. A group of locals challenged us (we had an architecture school team) to a match and even offered to drive us there and pay for the field. Since they were dating most of our women (how could we compete with Gelato and Ferrari's?) we jumped at the chance to settle the score.

Well, these guys had been playing together forever so we were down 0-2 right away. (I was also in net...) They were totally showboating (rainbowing, air dribbling, etc.) and annoying, but very sharp. I looked at my teammates and we all just dug in and amazingly came back to win 8-7. They cried, begged and pleaded for another five minutes (Italians aren't good losers...) so we went up 9-7. Then another five minutes and we were up 10-7.

Needless to say, they asked us to help pay for the field, but it was well worth it, Americans beating Italy on their home turf... (in front of our women) and right before they hosted the cup! My only regret was accepting the car ride home.. TOTALLY F'N NUTS!

Go USA!

[Peewee]

I've been waiting since the last World Cup ended for this. There is nothing like it.

GO USA. And if USA gets put out, GO GERMANY!

[Rasputin]

The only thing better would be if Dick Enberg broadcasted the games for American TV

Are you fuckin' insane? Dick (I'm such a nice vanilla guy that my lack of sports knowledge is over looked by the network) Enberg? The guy knows nothing about World Cup futbol. Sorry, I could never stand the way American TV butchered the World Cup coverage, I would much prefer watching with that Mexican guy who yells "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" everytime someone scores.

Aside from that, thanks for the story about the soccer tourney. Totally cool, I wish I could have been that good at it, but I wasn't. Sounds like the experience of a lifetime.

[Schmear]

You must've missed my thread about Dick Engberg being the mang. Sorry.

[Franz Klammer]

I can't wait for the WC.

I could write more:

• about my memories of Mexico 1986 when I was just a little kid and when my brother and I pretended that we were Maradona and Burruchaga
• about the tears I cried over that stupid backpass of Anton Pfeffer against Czechoslovakia in Italy 1990 and the memorable performances of Roger Milla and his Indomitable Lions
• about the happiness of seeing the Germans being eliminated by a brilliant header by Yordan Lechkov in 1994
• about the excitement of fantastic games between Danmark-Brazil and Netherlands-Brazil in 1998
• about my relative disappointment of mediocre football during WC2002

... but I'll leave that for another day.