Today the World Cup in international soccer opens in South Africa with the host nation playing Mexico. Tomorrow the United States plays England. So what.
Like many of "my fellow Americans" (with a nod to LBJ), I really couldn't care less what goes on in the World Cup. Neither do I care whether the U.S. does well or not. I don't even like watching soccer, which has to rate as among the most boring sports ever to be broadcast on television. And I can see this particular blog article going nowhere in a big hurry!
Let's see, there are 32 teams right now at the opening, divided into eight groups, each naturally comprised of four teams. In the opening round, the groups are engaged in round-robin play among themselves, ending after three games. The two teams with the best W-L-T records in each group advance to the quarterfinals (the World Cup version of the "sweet sixteen") while the remainder get a "sayonara baby" and pack up.
The U.S., whom I supposedly should be following, will play (favored) England along with Slovenia and Algeria. Mexico, which is getting a disgustingly high degree of biased adulation on my U.S.-based Spanish-language cable TV channel Univision, is in an "easier" group competing against a weaker France (they made the final game four years ago in the last World Cup), a possible dark horse in Uruguay, and a very weak South Africa (who are in this 32-team field only by dint of being the host country).
And then there are the usual favorites as in every World Cup: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy (the 2006 winner), Portugal, England (of course), ... the Netherlands are supposed to be real good; I'll take the opinion of the experts about them at face value. The absolutely worst team, perhaps besides South Africa, might be North Korea. I'd like to see a game between them and South Korea, who also made the World Cup field. But since they're in different groups, this is very unlikely to happen.
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And I'm in Barcelona as I write this comment... and everything is "Mundial 2010". Every bar and pub has the games on (tonight is Italy vs. Paraguay, game in progress; the tapas bar where we had dinner was playing a recording of the earlier Netherlands vs Denmark match). Everyone on the street is talking about the games. People are in the streets with country jerseys and face paint with national flags. Flags are hanging from windows all over the city, showing what country each resident favours. You can't turn a corner without hearing, seeing, or smelling something about "Mundial 2010".
ReplyDeleteIt's all relative.
Barcelona, hmm... I was wondering how many people around you speak Catalan and how many speak Castilian Spanish. Can you make out what they're saying in Catalan? And how many of the Barcelonans try to accommodate you by speaking English?
ReplyDeleteI do have to admit that the ending of that opening game between Mexico and South Africa was exciting, especially when a very late RSA shot just missed, hitting the left post of the goal.
At the airport, the first language on the signs is Catalán, the second is English, the third is Spanish. Many of the signs in town are only in Catalán. But almost everyone speaks enough English to communicate with tourists, and is happy to do so.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand a word of the spoken Catalán. For reading, Catalán seems to be some kind of hybrid of Spanish, French, and Italian, so one can often figure out enough of it to manage.