Goooaaaaallllll!!!

Aren't our national sports championships lame compared to the World Cup? The TV in the student union had soccer on today, and it was great to see all of the students crowded around to watch Italy vs. Ghana (Czech Republic had already beaten US 3-0 by this point). Our next door neighbor is from England (Leeds if I remember correctly, but likely not), and watches soccer religiously. He mentioned that we are likely to hear him hollering at 6 in the morning.

Slate features some articles on soccer today, including this one by Dave Eggers. He is right: the way kids are tapped to play soccer, we would think the sport had a larger role in the adult lineup than, certainly basketball and football.

I have great childhood memories of soccer, including when Pele played for the New York Cosmos (and my green Cosmos t-shirt that I proudly wore in late gradeschool/early junior high). Another great memory is during my high school French Club's trip to France, when our tour guide ran ahead of all of us once we reached our lodging in Angouleme so he could race to the tele to watch whatever match was happening. We American kids just didn't get it--we still don't, and that is our loss.