Fi Fa Ho Hum

The best answer, as it turns out, is "Mexico." The question would be "Mister Caven, who do you think is going to win the World Cup?" The kids that ask me this question, and there have been a surprising number of them, are almost exclusively Latino, and are ferociously loyal to their team. I have tried to be polite in my response, suggesting that there are a number of very good teams playing this year, including that of the host nation, South Africa. I have also said that I would be happy if the United States managed to find themselves in the finals. And that's when the conversation begins to break down, primarily because I know so very little about soccer. Pardon me: football.
I am not comfortable with the rhythms of the game. I am conditioned to TV time-outs and commercial breaks that allow me to nip out to the kitchen or bathroom, or simply to digest the action that I have just witnessed. Their football just keeps going and going. Forty-five minutes of non-stop play, with the occasional pause to toss the ball in from the side or line up for a corner kick. The rest is a flurry of bodies running up and down a great green expanse, chasing a ball with their feet. Please understand that I appreciate the extreme level of skill found in professional soccer compared to the version I am used to watching on our playground every day. Players pass to one another, and there is an over-arching strategy to the way they boot the ball about. I know that I am happy to kick a ball in the direction of another player on my team, let alone with top-spin and lead them just enough so they can snap their necks at it and knock the ball into the opposing goal.
I also know that I could watch one of these matches for two hours and not see a single point scored. We Americans prefer our points to come in bunches. We like Kobe because he can score forty points in a game. We manage our own version of football so that a single score can generate multiple points, making it easier for our children to master the sevens time tables. If you win your World Cup game, you get three points. That's the only way to get more than one at a time. I watched this past weekend, and was impressed to see that the United States was able to grab themselves a tie with a tough match with England. Of course, I also know that the World Cup isn't scheduled to conclude until the middle of July, so I can't get too worked up just yet. By then they might have four points.