Author's posts
Jul 09 2010
Gringo’s Guide To The World Cup, Final Final, Part 3, With Poll
How painful. After Sunday’s final final final of the world cup finals in South Africa, life will probably return to normal on the planet. After a month of almost daily futbol bliss, the workaday world returns: work (not between games), family, relationship, maintenance, vacations, etc etc. Coming Monday looks to be particularly bleak. There’s no futbol on the horizon, virtual or live, until the Fall of 2010, when to my utter relief European and South American futbol will resume. Until then, there’s only off season trade rumors, contracts, transfers, the business of futbol meeting the twin engines of hype and business.
But put aside all of my drama, my foreboding. This weekend has two televised gems for your delectation. And this essay also has a poll.
Jul 06 2010
Gringo’s Guide To The World Cup, Part 2, With Poll
There are two very big games coming up. They are semi-finals. That means that the winners meet to decide who takes home the World Cup. The final final is on July 11, 2010.
The two games that are semi finals:
Tuesday, 2:30 pm EDT Uruguay v. Netherlands
Wednesday, 2:30 pm EDT Germany v. Spain
Join me below for El Prognostico.
Jul 04 2010
The World Cup: A Brief, Gringo’s Guide to Futbol
Most of the planet has been tuned in to the World Cup since June 11, 2010, and will continue to watch and argue about it until the last whistle is blown on July 11. It’s expected that the audience for the final game will draw a tenth of the people on the planet. An audience of about 600 million people. It doesn’t matter very much to these people that their own countries didn’t qualify, or got eliminated. No. They’re watching, glued to the Tube, because that game is the World Game. And they love it. And they know great Futbol when they see it.
Unfortunately, in the US relatively few people care about futbol. Or soccer as most call it. They don’t reflect on the fact that the barefoot kids kicking a ball made of duct tape and rags in a vacant lot in Port au Prince or Kabul or in a favela in Rio are playing the same game that well scrubbed kids wearing uniforms and $100 shoes are trying to play in this country. So they don’t reflect on how democratic the game is. How anybody can play. And does. And how all you need is some ground and something to make a ball with. Shoes are optional. Goal posts are optional. Uniforms, optional. Only getting the ball into a goal counts.
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