Soccer mania

I am loving the World Cup. There is nothing like it. I love working out every morning (since I do that now) to the hum of vuvuzelas. I love listening to the announcers with their cool accents (Ian Darke is my favorite--what a cool name!). I've loved watching the Chileans belt out their national anthem. I've loved listening to the names of all the Greek players. I love the celebrations after goals. I especially love watching the good ol' USA! Their comeback (a win taken away from them) against Slovenia was amazing. Their dramatic goal in stoppage time to send them to the Round of 16 was incredible. I love that Tyler stays home from work to watch the Americans with me.

I used to play soccer. I was pretty good. In 9th grade I tried out for the high school team. I had a good tryout and the coach even wrote my name down. Did I make the team? No. There are two reasons for this: 1) I didn't have any connections with any coaches or players. Dumb high school politics. 2) I wasn't big enough. Seriously. I wasn't THAT small, but they apparently wanted bigger girls on the team. There were girls who clearly had inferior talent to mine who made the team simply because of their size. I played with these girls in rec soccer the same year they were on the high school team (and every year previous to that). Several of the high school team girls were on the same rec team. My rec team beat every team in the league at least once. We were first place. I was the best player on my team (I don't like to brag, but I don't think anyone would argue with me on this one). After that, my soccer career was pretty much over. I played indoor several years later, but I wasn't the same player because I hadn't kept my skill up.

Wow, that was a tangent. I guess the point of all that was that I miss playing soccer. It's just so fun! I am in awe of all the players I've been watching. They have amazing skill, control, and stamina. Soccer is played on a huge field with no time-outs. Only three players are allowed to be subbed the entire game, so most are running around for the entirety of two 45-minute halves. Some people find watching soccer boring, but I love the action, the excitement, and the close calls. I've yelled myself hoarse in all of the US matches. I just love it!

I did take a break from my World Cup routine this morning to watch Wimbledon (another love of mine). I had to see the end result of the Isner/Mahut match, the longest in tennis history. They played for over ELEVEN hours spread out over three days. Unbelievable. I was glad the American prevailed (and he's freaking 6'9"!), but I felt bad for the Frenchman. He put up one heck of a fight.