Might as well, lol.
So- I was disappointed to see that Peacock Premium / Plus or whatever was NOT going to be offering World Cup stuff in English. Apparently their contract was only with Telemundo.
So, I decided to brave the waters of broadcast TV and watch a game the old fashioned way. I caught the Canada / Bosnia and Herzegovina game. It was a soccer / football game, for sure. Thankfully, it was not as Ad-drenched as I feared it would be.
For the purposes of this blog, and to help with me keeping my sanity, I will refer to this sport from now on as “soccer”, lol. Feel free to auto translate if desired.
The sport really hasn’t changed much since like… forever, it seems. I mean it’s the same sport as it was the last time the US hosted the World Cup back in 1994. Egads, that was a LONG time ago.
I still have my 1994 World Cup collector’s thermos, btw. I use it to hold my prescription eyedrops.
Some thoughts: Well, it’s soccer. Seriously tho, the sport hasn’t changed in a looooonnnnnng time. I’m not sure of what I was expecting TBH. I mean I’ve watched games since then, of course. Different World Cups, Olympics, random games, etc. It’s very much the same sport. But I really struggled to find even the tiniest of differences between what I remember back in 1994 to what I saw today.
I guess the only real difference of note would be the personal one. Obviously, 1994 was a long time ago, and I was actually playing the sport when the cup was on. I played it from, IDK, I think 6 years of age through most of high school on the local HS team.
I watched a few of the 1994 games with the team I was on, back in the day.
Well, that’s pretty much it, lol. No great insights here, lmao. Perhaps that’s disappointing but there it is. My soccer exploits honestly pale in comparison to a lot of the other things I’ve done. I mean, they weren’t bad, but I mean…
I remember in high school the literary magazine I was a part of was voted the best in the nation not once, but twice, in different years. Yeah. As far as my high school soccer team goes… well, I remember us winning more games than we lost.
Good exercise, tho. A lot of running. I never did go on to varsity level. Didn’t have enough time in the day, IIRC.
Also circumstances interfered. It wasn’t too long into my school career when glasses for me became mandatory, and, as you can imagine, eye glasses and headers absolutely do not mix.
I got chewed out by my HS coach for not heading the ball enough, I remember. I was like… yeah, not going to happen, lol. I’ll take getting chewed out by coach over wrecking a pair of $100 eye glasses and getting roasted and grounded by my parents any day of the week.
So I stopped soccer by age 16 and turned full tilt to TaeKwonDo, which was ultimately the best choice for me anyhow. I *STILL* practice TKD. Still- even at 46 years old. I’ve even merged it with stuff like barre and pilates into these weird exercise routines that have worked very very well for me. But that’s a different post.
I found the intentional falls amusing as always. There is definitely a comedy factor there that I enjoy very much. I laughed out loud several times during the match. It was great, honestly. My friends back then didn’t share my views, like at all, lmao. They tended to complain about such things. I always appreciated the theatrical nature of that stuff, tho. It really is hilarious seeing a grown man fall to the ground in pretend agony as if crippled by a stiff breeze lmao.
Adding to the humor is the fact that the players seem slightly bigger than they used to be. I’d say they probably have on average 5 extra pounds of lean mass versus their 90’s counterparts.
But even there, things don’t seem too different. I’m not seeing any “mass monsters” like is typically seen in the NFL or NBA, or even the Olympics these days. The players still seem naturally human sized, which I appreciate.
I can understand the global appeal of the game. I mean it’s fun. Fast paced, approachable, etc. We’ll see how much of it I end up watching. It may get a bit repetitive after awhile, but you never know. This sport is / was a big part of my life.
Well, that does it for this one. If I watch more I’ll probably write more as well.