The World Cup!

It's that time again...no not the Olympics, even though this is an only every 4 year event as well.  The World Cup is here!! South Africa has been hosting this event for about a week now and it is incredibly exciting.  Coming from a soccer family, I don't fully understand the sport but I do appreciate it and I enjoy watching this epic tournament. 

What amazes me the most is the fact that thousands of people around the world are watching this.  I mean, soccer/futbol is the most popular sport in the world! No matter what language you speak or what nation you come from, you can come together to compete internationally.  It's simply astonishing.  The amount of competition between countries is exciting but the sportsman-like attitude is something that can be seen as well.  

I find different cultures fascinating and I've been glued to my tv or computer watching as many games as I can.  So far I'm on my 10th game and I plan on watching many more as the tournament continues.  Of course I have my favorite teams-USA (duh!), Portugal (family heritage-gotta route for the Pinto's!) and Italy (I just have an obsession with this country).   

In my mind, the PR that is done during this tournament is tremendous and I can't even fathom the amount of time spent on it.  Whether that's advertisements, interviews or my favorite being the pregame segments.  I would love to work for an event like this! You literally spend 4 years or more perfecting it and because of strategic planning and amazing media relations, you get a nearly flawless World Cup event. 

I know that this isn't something that a lot of Americans appreciate because we enjoy games that actually have a winner (a draw?? what??) but I hope that you can at least understand how neat of an event this is.  I mean it only comes around every 4 years (I'll be 26 the next time it comes around! Yikes!)...so take some time to watch a little bit of the coverage going on in South Africa- you may learn something!

and PS. For all of you that have fb or twitter statuses that say something along the following: "I bet it's so hot there because it's in Africa!" --It's WINTER there people...remember that elementary school geography class?

Don't forget tomorrow is USA vs Slovenia at 10am/9 central!