...still my favorite commercial.
The time change from California to South Africa has definitely disrupted my usual sleeping habits. I pull myself out of bed around 5 am to try and catch the bulk of the first game of the day, always end up missing the second game and catching only pieces of the third. While my brother celebrates with all the other lucky fans congregating around the four host cities in South Africa, I rely on my Droid app to feed my world cup cravings.
The Olympics is an incredible international sporting event, but I prefer the World Cup. It's focused. One sport. One team. May the best country win. It levels the playing field: no matter the culture of size of the economy of the country, soccer is uniform throughout. Unlike the Olympics, GDP doesn't directly correlate with qualification for the tournament or success. The Olympics also has expanded almost to its own detriment, in my opinion. The Olympics offers such an array of sports (and some so antiquated I'm amazed any athletes even are able to recruit coaches) that it's impossible to keep up. World Cup allows anyone, even if they only catch a couple of games, to stay in the loop.
My picks for this year are my favorites: Germany and Spain. Germany's strong debut even without Ballack was impressive, and I hope indicative of coming results. Spain has yet to take the field, but I feel pretty confident they'll be celebrating straight victories all the way to the finals.
Each year I keep saying that I'll make it to the next World Cup. Here's hoping that Brazil in 2014 is the year I make it happen. For now, I'll attempt to live vicariously through my brother and keep setting my alarm for an early wake up call.
The Olympics is an incredible international sporting event, but I prefer the World Cup. It's focused. One sport. One team. May the best country win. It levels the playing field: no matter the culture of size of the economy of the country, soccer is uniform throughout. Unlike the Olympics, GDP doesn't directly correlate with qualification for the tournament or success. The Olympics also has expanded almost to its own detriment, in my opinion. The Olympics offers such an array of sports (and some so antiquated I'm amazed any athletes even are able to recruit coaches) that it's impossible to keep up. World Cup allows anyone, even if they only catch a couple of games, to stay in the loop.
My picks for this year are my favorites: Germany and Spain. Germany's strong debut even without Ballack was impressive, and I hope indicative of coming results. Spain has yet to take the field, but I feel pretty confident they'll be celebrating straight victories all the way to the finals.
Each year I keep saying that I'll make it to the next World Cup. Here's hoping that Brazil in 2014 is the year I make it happen. For now, I'll attempt to live vicariously through my brother and keep setting my alarm for an early wake up call.
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