I'm Baaack!!!

It has been WAY too long since I've posted here.  Life has been so very busy and lots of things happening.  So what brings me back?  WORLD CUP!!!

Yes, World Cup, the most exciting sporting event in the world!  Now, all my fantasy football buds are probably gasping for air and contemplating my fantasy demise, but wait!  You KNOW how much I love FOOTBALL, but a big piece of my heart belongs to FUSSBOL (German for soccer). 

Think of it, every four years the whole world comes together and celebrates The Beautiful Game (and it is beautiful) for an entire month.  The best in the world compete for their home countries.  It doesn't get better than that.

The tournament kicked off yesterday at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the South African side called Bafala Bafala (you have to love that name) taking on the favored 'El Tri", the Mexican National side.  It was a pretty good second half for the home boys, with Tshabalala (another great name) scoring the first goal of the tournament - a little moment of magic!  The game ended in a tie and, while the host country is probably estatic the Mexican side have to be unhappy.

Today the big game was the US vs England, a hugely anticipated match.  England scored in the fourth minute on a very nice play that highlighted the weaknesses in our defensive line and really pissed off Tim Howard, our keeper.  The first half did show that we belong with the best, because we dominated the time of possession and held the ball well. 

Very near the end of the half Dempsey took a shot on goal and Green, the English keeper, should have put his body in front of the ball, because it deflected off his hands and rolled across the goal line, scoring one for us.  I was estatic, of course, but still feel pretty bad for Green, because he has to live with that mistake for the rest of his life.  They take their soccer way too serious in England and his life will most likely be negatively impacted unless he can come up with a heroic moment or two later in the tournament. 

The second half was exciting with several quality opportunities on both sides but no more scoring.  So we played the anticipated winner of our group to a draw and got a point out of it.  Not a bad result.  Now we just have to beat Slovenia and Algeria to advance from group play.

I love soccer and am SO excited about World Cup!