¡El Mundial!

The World Cup is upon us! I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to watch the World Cup surrounded by people as passionate about the sport as I am. The level of anticipation and excitement here is unlike anything I've ever seen back home. This has caused me to be even more excited than I would be otherwise. Watching the games this time is guaranteed to be twice as enjoyable because I'll be able to root for two teams.

I am not exaggerating at all when I say that nearly every single commercial has some kind of World Cup related message. The news programs constantly show features on some different aspect of the tournament or the team or the fans or just the general buildup. The last couple of days have been filled with updates about Chile's top scorer, Humberto "Chupete" Suazo. He took a bit of a knock to his leg during a game on Sunday so everyone is on pins and needles waiting to make sure it isn't anything serious. By the look of the guy, he wouldn't miss the World Cup unless his leg had actually fallen off so I don't think there's much to worry about. You literally cannot go 5 minutes without seeing something or hearing something about 'La Roja'. You also cannot go more than 10 minutes without hearing this song (I think it has been implemented as a law):



I've noticed that certain commercials show old clips of goals Chile has scored in previous World Cups. The strange thing is they don't show the goals that make you say "Oh my goodness, what a goal!". They just show all the goals...no matter how mediocre. They obsess and revel in the memory of completely forgettable goals. Of course, they happened in the World Cup so they'll never be forgotten. You can ask most people about each goal and they can tell you who scored it. It's incredible.

Get this. The government of Chile has issued a memo to all schools informing them that arrangements MUST be made to allow all students to watch every game Chile plays in. Many businesses are doing the same. The entire country will come to a stand still when Chile takes the field. It's fantastic. Can you imagine something like that happening in the US? Yeah, didn't think so. Unfortunately, they're not making the same arrangements to allow me to watch my countries games. I'll have to take that into my own hands. I can assure you that I won't be missing a single minute of any game the US plays in. I'm a volunteer. They can't fire me.

It should be an interesting tournament. I think Chile and the US should be able to get out of the first round and into the next stages. Both teams are considered favorites to finish second in their respective groups so it'll be fun to watch. Of course, the US plays England (the favorite in group C and one of the best teams in the world) in their first group game while Chile plays Spain (favorite in group H and favorite to win the entire tournament) in their last group game. Hopefully, Chile won't need a result (meaning a win or tie) against Spain to get through to the next round. That could be a tough spot. They play with an attacking style that will impress many viewers and be pleasurable to watch even for people with no interest in who wins the game. They scored almost as many goals as Brazil did in qualifying so you can be sure that the goals will come. The problem will be maintaining their defensive shape at the back. If they can play within themselves and not get too carried away, they can surprise the world with an upset or two.

As for the US, I'm finding it hard to say exactly how I think things will play out. Of course, I think we'll get out of our first round group but I think it'll be much more difficult than average American fans expect. Our problem used to be scoring goals but we've been doing that quite well for the last handful of games. It seems now that our issue starts in defense as we've given up quite a few goals recently that seemed somewhat easy. I'm confident that we'll work out the kinks once our best 11 players are on the field but it has made me a bit nervous. We'll see. I'm also attaching a cool video that a soccer film producer in the US put together for the upcoming event. It includes all of the best goals from the biggest games over the past couple years leading up to the World Cup. It gives me goosebumps for 8 straight minutes.



GAME ON!