Soccer

I'm watching the World Cup right now. I've never watched soccer on TV before. I've seen what seems like an infinite number of  kid soccer games, but nothing on TV. I even coached little kid soccer before. My main strategy during games was to point which way our goals were. That was very helpful as out team was constantly confused which way to go. The players in the World Cup seem to be more advanced than that.

I thought I would see what all the hullabaloo is about. The whole nation is behind the US soccer team. That being in spite of the fact that until a couple weeks, 99% of the US seems to have been pretty apathetic.

I'm watching Brazil vs. Chile in a 1 to 1 tie. They are in what is unimaginatively called "extra time". So far in my TV soccer veiwing of 80 minutes, I have seen no goals scored. Just a lot of running and kicking. There have been some penalties and injuries to keep things a little interesting, but otherwise, a little boring.

Penalty kicks are taking place to end the game. I don't know why but that is what is happening. Now we're talking. This is pretty interesting. This just in - Brazil wins 3 to 2.

Several years ago I was in a park in Quito, Ecuador and there was a soccer team practicing there. They were amazing. They had formed into two lines and were "passing" the ball back and forth by doing headers. They never missed. They did another drill that I don't completely remember except that part of it involved stepping on the stomach of a player that was lying on the ground. Those soccer players are serious.