World Cup by Julie

Most of the blog articles are by me but hopefully Dennis will write one about the World Cup; for now you can read my take on it. For the English, this is paramount to the Olympics; their national identity is tied closely with their footballprowess. Just look at the insane amounts of money the Premier League players get paid to kick a ball; it's comparable to US baseball players and star American football players. Statistics report that an average of three days holiday from work will be taken by the average English employee during the World Cup to see the matches. This year, England was hopeful it was to be their year but those hopes were dashed when controversy set in early with the team captain having an affair with another

players' wife and then injury to two star players. Nevertheless, all eyes were on this team to make it big.

Most houses were decked out with St. George's flags, people were sporting England shirts, parties were planned, large amounts of alcohol were purchased; it was big!

By the luck of the draw England was set to play America on June 26th. Being the party girl that I am, I said, 'let's have a party with

some of our English and American friends'. The English fans were not the least bit interested in watching the game with us, after all what if England lost? Seemed like a no brainer to me but then again I take sports casually. In the end, we had all of the Americans from Dennis' office over for a cookout to watch the match. Even though England and the US tied, it didn't seem much to celebrate for the English as they have a long soccer history and Americans are new to the sport. Still a tie meant Nathan could go to school Monday without having the 'mick' taken out of him which he was quite concerned about

if the US should actually lose to the English.

Every newspaper and news show focused on the English team for months, all having their opinion of what the manager should do to rouse the team to their potential greatness. In the end, they were eliminated by Germany 4-0, returning to England with their heads down. Meanwhile the Americans probably came home celebrated. In fact the United States had more fans at the World Cup than any other nation!

Normally, Dennis and I watch very little TV, in fact we didn't own a television the first several years we were married.

It wasn't until the 2000 World Cup, that we bought one. All has changed this month, we (Dennis, Nathan and I) have perched ourselves in front of the screen to watch 'football'. Over the years, Dennis has remained a loyal Spanish fan so he is thrilled that Spain has made it through to their first World Cup final ever. Icing on the cake is that we will be in downtown Madrid the night of the finals. We will go watch the game on some huge screen in a big square of Madrid surrounded by passionate Spaniards pulling for their team. Should be an forgettable night regardless of the result!