World Cup Fever

Everyone has it. The blogosphere has it (go check out Technorati’s top searches), everyone (in Europe at least) has it, and I hate to say it, but I have it too. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been in Spain for the last 8 months and have tried my best to get “in to” soccer, or maybe it’s because I’d really like to see the USA do well this time around, and have something to be proud of while here in Spain.

We have been watching at least one of each day’s three games since the tournament started, and today will be no exception. At 6 PM (Spain time) I will be heading down to watch the US team take on the Czech Republic. My hopes have been pretty well stifled thanks to the Spaniards; any mention of the possibility of the US winning is answered by jokes. According to my roommate, the only way the US could win today would be if we either “bought the game, or the other team didn’t show up.”

I’m not completely without hope, however. The Americans did well (at least relatively speaking) in the last World Cup, but their record on European soil isn’t so great. In fact it’s horrible. As in no wins. But from what I have managed to read on the subject the American team is not bad by any means. Then again, it doesn’t help we’re in a pretty tough bracket.

Who knows what will happen. Hopefully this year we can break our losing streak in Europe, and at least make a decent show of ourselves. Best of luck to the US team.