(I touched on this a bit previously, but let me do a better job...)
The World Cup first mattered to me in 1998. Summer is amazing when you're 14. You're not old enough to have a job, but you are old enough to know what you're doing and appreciate the time off. Virtually every morning that summer, I woke up and watched Patrick and Olbermann do SportsCenter. I listened to Hello Nasty and watched the video for Intergalactic. And I watched the World Cup.
This commercial was the greatest thing I had ever seen.
From the beginning, the World Cup was not about the knockout rounds for me. I fell in love with the group stage. The round robin where wins and ties matter and scenarios unfold over the course of weeks. And each game is on one at a time. So you watch Brazil and France, but also Iran and Japan.
This was my first World Cup. I was just a boy.
Four years prior, I was a ten-year-old who knew nothing. The World Cup was actually in America. I remember being on vacation and for some reason, I was wearing a Germany t-shirt for no reason. I suppose I thought it was neat. Anyways, we were at a restaurant and the waiter asked if we where there for the World Cup.
By the 2002 World Cup, I had already completed a year of college. Perhaps I was still a boy, but I had a summer job. And with the time zone difference between South Korea and Peoria, the games were on at 2 and 4 am. I tried to watch a U.S. game but have little memory.
In 2006, I fell in love with again, for good. And I have Ted Grossman to thank. This was my first year in the workforce. We were working together and he was super into the World Cup. He talked me into cutting out of work for a long lunch to watch some games. We went to this Irish pub down the street. I believe we watched Netherlands defeat Ivory Coast, 2-1. We watched a lot of games. It was pretty fantastic. I watched the U.S. lose twice and draw once.
So 2010 was really only my third World Cup. I was already 26. I had been married for four years. We were trying to have a children. Perhaps I was still a boy in some aspects, but I was also sort of grown up. I was still at the same agency as 2006, but now in a different building. Our company had merged since the last Cup. This agency knew that people wanted to watch, so instead of having hundreds of people stream the games across their network, they happily set up a viewing room. There would always be a few people there, sometimes as many as 20. A lot of Spanish speakers. Watching the World Cup with rabid fans is far more satisfying than watching by yourself. This was the year that the U.S. won their group and it was pretty amazing.
Which brings us to today. Only my fourth World Cup. I'm 30. I have two kids. I have a house. I've changed jobs and moved across state lines. There's no viewing room here, but we're making it work. It really is a special tournament, that sort of lives outside of sport and in this strange place where the world can come together and agree that even though it doesn't really matter, it's all that matters for the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment