I helped out with the Special Olympics aquatics event at the end of last month and it was, by far, one of the coolest and most joyful experiences, ever. I highly recommend volunteering for the Special Olympics. I really enjoyed it and it got me really wanting to go swimming. And, happily for me, there's a pool at my apartment complex that I've been meaning to use for a long time. So, I went one evening and tried swimming for the first time in years....and it was hard! Like, waaay harder than I remembered. I was never one for being able to swim laps or anything, but even just swimming from one end of the little kidney-shaped pool to the other was a challenge. I was both disappointed and happy about my swimming re-entry. Disappointed that I sort of suck at swimming but happy because I really enjoy swimming, even though I'm terrible at it. I ended up doing a hybrid doggie-paddle meets backstroke kind of twirling thing through the pool, laughing and enjoying myself but really pleased to be the only person at the pool that evening. I've been scoping out the pool for another time to go, but last night someone vandalized the pool and so it's closed until further notice. Living in a college town with students as your neighbors can be such a bummer sometimes. We can't have even semi-nice things.
If you live under a rock, I'll let you know that the World Cup is happening! Exciting, exciting! I sort of look forward to the World Cup forever. I love it. Last night was the USMNT's debut against Ghana and it was a characteristically nail-biting experience. The men won but spent most of the time on defense and we had some instances where things should have been called against the opposing team (i.e. the Radio City Rockette kick to the face of Clint Dempsey from a Ghana player who was going for a header. I mean, what?! Card him, Ref!). It was tense the entire time. I think the last couple of minutes of the game I spent with my hands clasped tightly and my eyes glued to the game clock just wishing it would speed up a little. There was a decent crowed watching the game where I was, which was really nice to see. I wish the US would become more of a soccer country because we would all be happier and have more fun if we were. The drama and the enthusiasm of the fans of other countries will probably not be matched by the United States, but I do think soccer is growing with MLS expanding and heightened media coverage as some of the really good European players start to come play here in US clubs.
Every four years I have to laugh at the soccer-haters that erupt from the woodwork. Everywhere you go, you hear people whining about soccer. It's not even whining in some cases as much as ranting. I just want to stop them and ask why they're so mad. What did a soccer ball ever do to you to make you hate it so? It's a game. No more, no less. Do people flop on the ground to draw fouls? Yes (like in basketball). Do people fix games and cheat? Yes (like in baseball, and American football, and cycling, etc.). I hear the complaint that soccer is too low scoring and there's not much action. That's the most ridiculous complaint. There's more movement and action in soccer than in any other popular sport except perhaps hockey. Hockey is the only other sport I can think of off the top of my head where the athletes have to constantly go go go non-stop (although they do get to sub quite a bit so the athletes get a breather). Soccer players move constantly for 45 minute halves. They don't get timeouts. There aren't team challenges where the refs take 5 minutes to look at instant replays before they are confident that, yes, someone broke a rule. The game lasts 2 hours, tops. There's none of that irritating winding down the clock that happens at the end of basketball games where the team with the upper hand will slowly dribble the ball around, wasting time. Soccer is whistle to whistle, non-stop. Any injury or dramatic flopping time that's wasted by either team gets tacked on to the end of the half. I love that, it's one of the most honest rules in all of sport. It is a drama-filled game, but that's part of the beauty of it. People go to hockey games to see the fighting; people go to soccer games to see the dramatic-selling-of-fouls. Yeah, it's low scoring, but it's not slow. I hear this complaint a lot from people who like baseball, of all things. Talk about slow games and no action. You spend the majority of your time at a baseball game watching grown men stand around doing nothing. (Don't get me wrong, I like baseball. I've wasted a lot of hours watching baseball games. I love my Redbirds. I think the season is way too long, but that's not where I'm going with this.) Don't give me the excuse that there's too little action in soccer for you to enjoy the game, when I know you watch baseball all the damn time. If you need "expert weigh-in" on the topic of playing time, here you go: according to a Wall Street Journal study, baseball games average about 18 minutes of actual playing time and those games can last 3 hours minimum. American football averages even less playing time at 11 minutes per game. So, if you're going to trash soccer around me, at least find a more creative excuse than these tired comments. In the end: you only have to deal with soccer mania once every four years. Chill out. It will all be okay. Try watching the just the first minute of a USMNT game and maybe Captain America will give you something to cheer about, like he did last night:
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