Uninformed and Uneducated Thoughts on the World Cup

I have friends who actually know stuff about the World Cup and can tell you all sorts of statistics on what country is going to beat what country and who plays what position and how this is going to be the year that soccer finally takes root in America.

If you care about that sort of stuff, you should read their blogs.

There are also a gazillion sites that deride soccer as a pansy European sport that no American should care about.

If you care about that sort of stuff, you should have someone read their site to you.

Amazingly, the one thing both these camps have in common is that they tend to absolutely hate the one thing that is awesome about World Cup soccer.

They both seem to really, really hate when a player (generally an Italian) will get nudged in the shoulder or something, then fall to the ground as if they were stabbed trying to pull a foul on the other team. Then the ref leaves and the player gets up.

This is the one thing that I absolutely think is awesome about soccer. In fact, it might be the coolest move in professional sports. To me, it recalls Ric Flair, master of ring psychology, when he'd fall to his knees and pantomime begging for the mercy of an opponent. Then, he'd punch him in the balls when the ref wasn't looking.

Dunks from the foul line, Hail Mary passes, fake kicks on fourth down; all of these are awesome moves, but to see a guy fall down screaming in obvious fake pain only to pop right back up and continue playing - this move should be in every professional athlete's bag of tricks.