World Cup Pandemonium

The World Cup has started, and even though the United States team still doesn't seem to have it together, things seem different this time around. People actually give a shit seemingly more than ever. For the first time I know of, the newspapers are daily full of articles about soccer more than any other sports. And all this when both the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup are going on.

Since Salt Lake City got a professional MLS soccer team, Real Salt Lake (a la Real Madrid), the Utah media has leapt on every opportunity to report everything and anything about the team. Such and such sprained an ankle, another guy is starting a clothing business, Jason Kreis is old 'but still going strong', etc. Almost everyday's sport section has a front page article on Real Salt Lake.

Does all this media attention really signify a change in the psyche of the American people? I think it does. A number of friends have pledged they would be at the bar at 7 AM (the bar is opening early just for the games) to have the earliest shots of liquor in their lives. And today, in between observing surgeries in which two people were having there entire large intestine removed, the doctors were in the lounge . . . watching and commenting on the the USA vs. Czech Republic game. Granted, a number of the docs knew little of the rules, but they seemed genuinely interested. They were excited and sighing at every close opportunity and mistake. Too bad the US lost and still sucks at the international level . . . just like our foreign policy, we have a bit of a wrongly placed superiority complex.

I think soccer is finally approaching the prominence it enjoys in most of the world. Almost every kid plays the game as a kid, and the sport is finally beginning to catch on as my generation is reaching adulthood.