World Cup Soccer

For as sports hungry as people are in this city, it is surprising that no one gives a whit about world cup soccer. Actually, it's not that surprising, given how many other teams there are to focus on, a few games played somewhere you can't tail-gate aren't likely to make much of a splash.

That being said, I work with mostly people who aren't from Pittsburgh, including one former college soccer player. So in my lab, we care about soccer. We've got brackets posted, we've found out how to stream the games and scheduled experiments around them.

I've heard several people say it is insincere for most Americans to suddenly care about soccer once ever four years. I disagree. (I also don't think that the vuvuzela should be banned- deafening though it may be) While a fair chunk of the motivation is to get behind something that is rather exotic, I can't honestly say I care about biathalon or most other Olympic Sports more than once every four years. Even then, it's a chance to think about the different places these players come from, and see how that plays out for them on the world stage.

I got really infatuated during the Brazil vs. North Korea game. I have great affection for a lot of Brazil's players - as did the sea of yellow in the stands. Even though it could never be, it was exciting to see the North Koreans come out and play against the world's best. No one out there knows their names, they've never been out of the country, which means the best players they've ever SEEN are each other, there were a only few Chinese "volunteer fans" to cheer them on, and if they didn't win the game would not be shown (or possibly ever mentioned) back home. Can you imagine the pressure? The confusion? All that, and they are playing a bunch of world class divers who are using them for passing drill practice! It was pretty fantastic to see them score in the last minute of the game, to bring the score up to 2-1. Sure, they still lost- but it was a tremendously important moment for those players to not feel like they'd been completely abandoned and embarrassed on the world stage.

The US doesn't have any hope of winning, but if you can't watch every game, it makes sense to watch the games of guys you might see again. Matt and I went to a bar to see the UK vs USA game last weekend. I can't pretend I know that much about soccer, but you know how fun it is to be in a bar with a bunch of fans when your country ties the score? Yeah, I'll keep watching- even if it is only ever 4 years.