Are you ready for some futbol?
Jim Young beat me to it Wednesday with his post on Ronaldo's girlfriend deciding not to pose nude for a magazine, but this is my Eric Cantona/Nike/Joga Bonito moment as I hijack this blog to talk about "the beautiful game:" Soccer.
The World Cup starts Friday and, while the first-day matchups are not exactly marquee games (Germany-Costa Rica at noon and Poland-Ecuador at 3 p.m., both on ESPN2), it's still a great day to be a futbol/soccer fan. I can remember the first time I watched a World Cup game. It was 1978, and Tunisia stunned Mexico 3-1 -- the first time an African nation had won a game in the tournament. The picture was fuzzy and the broadcast was in Spanish (Univision at my soccer buddy Mike Heredia's house in Dover, N.J.), but I was hooked.
I didn't get to see a World Cup game in person until 1994, when I watched Ireland hand Italy its only loss until the final, beating the Azzuri 1-0 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. What an atmosphere! For about four hours that day, I felt as if I'd been transported to the San Siro, Bernabeu, Wembley or one of the sport's other European cathedrals. The weather was miserably hot and humid in a "swamps of Jersey" kind of way, with apologies to Bruce. But even my wife, who is not a soccer nut, didn't mind.
A lot has changed since 1978. Every game is on live TV here (WXLV-45, ESPN, ESPN2, Univision and Telefutura) and the tournament is being promoted by U2 in commercials. But it's still the beautiful game and, while I've never been able to "play beautiful," as Cantona implores, I can at least "watch beautiful" and try to "blog beautiful." Between now and the final July 9, Jim Young and I will bring you live updates from some of the games and share our thoughts on the world's largest sporting event.
Until kickoff at noon Friday, I return you to Jeff Carlton's Stanley Cup finals updates and regularly scheduled blogging.