penalty kicks

Overheard on Cruise Ship X this weekend: "Is this soccer stuff over yet? NASCAR's on, dammit." (I don't get NASCAR, I will never get NASCAR. Call me an east coast elitist, but I think it's the biggest waste of gas and beer in American history.)

And Italy wins the world cup. Zidane, what the hell were(n't) you thinking?! Not quite the Hollywood ending everyone was hoping for. Hell, I was rooting pretty hard for France, or better put against Italy all game (reasons to be explained, well, later), and I couldn't muster much after the head butt.

Oh, and France's first goal was due entirely to a bad call. (as really, was Italy's whole run) The guy flopped. Here I agree with some of the louder American sports pundits- soccer, will never, NEVER catch on in the states as long as players keep flopping like fish in a rowboat trying to get foul calls. Our sports culture prizes toughness above all- Willis Reed, Schilling's bloody sock, Jordan scoring 50 with the flu, etc. We think anyone who flops that much is a creampuff who should go buy some, er, toughness. And while I'm no great fan of masochism, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.

Unless Creampuff's name is Dwayne Wade, and it's the NBA Finals. But that's another story...

As long as this is turning into a sports blog... thanks to the World Cup I saw American ESPN this month for the first time in ages, and Sportscenter was already doing a blow by blow of next football season. Guys, overkill, just a little? On the bright side, they had the Patriots going to the Superbowl. Or is that the kiss of death?

Finally, my beloved Red Sox are three games up in the East going into the all-star break, and I'm officially in withdrawl. I'm getting results sporadically on (Latin) ESPN and the web. I haven't seen a game all season. It's at the point where I snap at people when I see them wearing a Yankees hat. (I'm buying one foreign friends, who really doesn't know any better, a Red Sox cap, just so they won't wear their damnYanks hat around me. I'm going that bonkers...)

Current listening- Los Gauachos II, Guillermo Klein. I think I want to marry Luciana Souza. My god, she's is there anything she can't sing? More on the album very soon, I promise.