World Cup Fever. 05/22/26

John played varsity soccer for his college. I coached grade school soccer. I never called it football or even futbol (these other countries sure spell things funny, or funnily, but funny sounds better). To me football is that stuff the Giants and Jets attempt to play, even though a foot is only applied to a ball on field goals and extra points. Nonetheless World Cup Futbol where they do use their feet all the time (except for the goalkeepers who can use their hands - never mind) is coming to North America this June. It’s all anybody can talk about in New York. You don’t hear a word about the Yankee bullpen, the Met injuries or the Knicks threatening to win the NBA Championship for the first time in 53 years. No, it’s soccer, soccer, soccer. Okay, maybe I’m being a tad sarcastic. The crazy thing is that no one is talking about the world’s most popular event coming to our shores. No one. Yet. But once it starts it’ll be all people tallk about. Sure these are these old farts like Mike Francesa who say idiotic things like, “I hate soccah (that’s how he pronounces it), I mean, first of all who wants to sit around for an hour (pronounced ow-ah) to watch these guys run around a field and win a game 1-nothing.” Good question Mike, except the game lasts 90 minutes, it’s played on a pitch, and the victorious team won by a score of 1-nil. Ted Lasso got us excited, the World Cup will get us going gaga. But when we ran World Cup, part 1 on Facebook, the futbol lovers came roaring out of the closet. They were pissed off. Consider this from a Mr. Phil White: “American willful ignorance prevents them from appreciating The Beautiful Game.” But a Mr. Dennis Jensen made us laugh out loud by quoting John Oliver on the World Cup: “It is like the Super Bowl. Except the rest of the world actually gives a fuck.” One thing we all have to admit, the World Cup is a much better use of the word “World” than the World Series (unless you consider a league with 29 cities in the continental U.S. and one from Canada to represent the world).

Our second comic is about, wait for it, soccer, futbol or the beautiful game, however you’d like to refer to it. I was thinking I should attend a game as a “bucket list” experience. After all, a bunch of games are being played at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey, a mere 20 miles from my house, but there’s a catch. In fact there are many catches. The first is the price. The tickets are literally thousands of dollars apiece, unless you choose to sit at the very top of the stadium where the prices start a more “reasonable” $1370. But the seats are so high up, you end up watching on the stadium screen. So why not watch at home on my screen? Or I could fly to Monterrey, Mexico to catch Sweden vs Tunisia starting at $408. Much better, but then there’s the part about flying there and renting a hotel or Airbnb. Come to think of it, maybe that “bucket list” concept is a bit overrated, although…

Anyway, that’s all we’ve got for this week. In the meantime, once the tournament starts, hold onto your hats and yell Gooooooooooooooal! Have a great weekend,

Andy and John