The World Cup

There was a time, perhaps as little as a decade ago, that I was "into" sports - I used to follow the Montreal Canadiens exploits (or lack thereof), I'd watch the NHL playoffs, I'd watch the World Series, I'd regularly watch the NFL (go Broncos!) and sometimes I'd even watch a little NBA action.

I'm not "into" sports anymore. I do watch the occasional NHL playoff game, but I didn't watch a single game of the Stanley Cup final this year - the NHL season is too long. The Cup was won yesterday and tomorrow's the first day of summer.

However, if there's one sports vice I do have, it's the World Cup. In 1994 I marvelled at "the beautiful game" and through an improbable set of circumstances, watched every single match at work. In 1998 I was working for HP, IT infrastructure provider, and through the new implementations of technology had the scores updated "live" on my desktop at work, and revelled with France as they won it all over Brazil 3-0. In 2002 I set my alarm for an improbably early hour of the morning, perhaps 2am, to watch Brazil agonizingly win it over my beloved Germany 2-0, their first goal coming mere minutes after the German captain almost scored on what would have been a highlight reel free kick.

I find the World Cup compelling sports for a number of reasons...

• There are games every day. The tournament starts with 32 teams, so every day there's someone playing a game - you're not left to wait for the "travel day".
• Unlike the Olympics, where there are many events that each have a small following, the World Cup has one thing - soccer. Several billion fans can't be wrong.
  
• The crowd is as much fun to watch as the game. During the Korea-France match, the Korean fans had tribal drums going and chanting Beethoven's Ode to Joy (in Korean no less). Then they went absolutely bananas when their team scored.
• The game doesn't stop. The clock starts, the half is 45 minutes long; the referee will add usually 2-3 minutes at the end to make up for "stoppage time", but there's no break in the game.
• There are only three substitutions for the entire game. The 11 people who start are it, save for subs.
• There are no substitutions for players sent off. In the Italy-USA game, for most of the second half Italy was down to 10 players and the USA was down to 9.
• A strict penalty system - one yellow card's a warning, get a second in the same game and you're not only sent off, but you miss the next game. Yellow cards carry over too, so if you got one in your first game, and another in your second, you miss the third. Boom. Done. No endless appeals.
  
• The "I can't believe he just did that with the ball" factor - it's amazing how much skill these players have.

There's more than that, but in terms of sports, it's my only "must watch must see" event. I think my wife's grateful it's only every four years.