Well, it was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? The hopes for the U.S. World Cup Soccer Team to advance to the next round ended today with the defeat to Ghana. Italy played their part well, which earned Ghana the ability to pass into the next round leaving the Czech Republic in the dust. This obviously isn’t 2002.
It’s a shame that the US had to lose, but to be honest it’s for the best. Due to the untimely nature of my vacation, I was unable to watch any of the US Games, but I was very excited for the US Team this year. I even considered buying a US Team Jersey to show my support.
If the US had won today, a few more fair-weather fans would have jumped on the soccer band wagon for a few days until the US lost to Brazil in the first game of the next round (most likely). Meanwhile, in the small African Nation of Ghana 22,409,572 people are celebrating today as their team advances.
For some reason, the World’s most popular sport is only admired by those Soccer Mom’s who cheer for their 8-year old kids as they run around the field playing their first team sport. I’ll bet even those very same soccer mom’s could have cared less about the importance of the World Cup. But for the rest of the world it means respect.
Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t take it seriously. Otherwise, we might actually be embarrassed by our team’s extremely poor performance — scoring only one goal in the three matches.
Sigh. I guess it’s time to get back to America’s real pastime, and hope that four years from now more people will appreciate the excitement and thrill of World Cup soccer.
Wait – what was America’s favorite pastime again? Golf????