World Cup Fevah

For my 100th post, I will not wax nostalgically on my previous 99 posts. No, there's plenty of time for waxing later. Instead, let's talk about the World Cup. For the first time I've actually kept up with the tournament this year, and while I haven't fallen in love with the sport, it's actually proved to be pretty interesting:

• As everyone knows by now, the US had a pretty dismal showing in the World Cup group matches. I watched them get crushed by the Czech Republic, and I watched them squeak out a tie with Italy (in which the only US goal was scored by a player on the Italian team). I didn't watch their last match against Ghana, but they lost that too. Oh well, there's always 2010.


• The flop knows no language barrier. It seems like a once every few minutes a player gets tripped or bumped, and then he proceeds to roll around on the ground for a while, clutching his ankle in agony. A minute later, he's up and running again. It's nice to see that the phantom injury is part of our universal language. Sure, it really hurts if someone steps on the back of your leg with a cleat, but I think a lot of these guys just want to lie on the ground so they can catch their breath from running around all over the place.
  
  
  
• This is Goleo VI, the official mascot of the 2006 World Cup. Pille, the talking football, is Goleo's constant companion who is always by his side. Goleo kicks Pille in the face and in the head all the time, but that lovable football just doesn't seem to mind. I've got nothing against mascots, and I actually love seeing people in animals suits. However, when I look at Pille, his mouth looks like someone took a soccer ball and slashed it with a knife. It kind of makes me queasy. Take a look at this, you can see his soccer ball guts inside his mouth:
  
  


• I could be wrong about this, but it seemed like both the teams from Japan and Korea had one guy with bleached blonde hair. Only one - all the other members of the team had regular dark hair. It was if they had a contest, and only one guy got to change his hair color.
  
  

• Whenever I see the World Cup Trophy, it always reminds me of the poster from the War of the Worlds remake. Creepy.

• As of today, Germany and Portugal have been eliminated and France and Italy will meet in the final. Who will win? I have no idea. I've been to both France and Italy, but overall I've spent more time in France, so there you have it. Go France!