The World Cup

Four years ago this past February, I fell down while ice skating and made a unknown strained disc in my back (L4-L5) decide it would herniate. That is, it decide that a bit of it would pop out and poke my spinal cord.

Six months later, after countless bouts of Physical Therapy and epidural steroid shots (yes, they are as painful as they sound), I had a surgery to get that pesky bit of me from poking my spinal cord and causing massive pain to shoot down my leg.

I ended up having my surgery during June of 2006, amongst the World Cup. I spent many pre and post op days watching the games on Univision in my parents' house.

Once my teams get eliminated (and sometimes even before), I'm notorious for just rooting for the underdog. Last World Cup it was Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, Angola, among other first time participants in the World Cup.

On the day of my surgery was the Brazil v. Ghana match, a match, that if Ghana won, would be simply amazing.

I am wheeled out of the surgery all druggy and hooked to a morphine drip the room seemed too bright, my back was smarting in a way that it had never hurt. As soon as I was aware to realize I was in a room, I told my dad to find the World Cup on the television. The game came in static-y with lines crisscrossing the screen so frequently the ball was sometime lost in a mess of electric snow. I told themt o turn it up. I couldn't read the score anyway, my eyes having lost all of their will to actually work.

I pushed the morphine drip.

I listened.

One of my doctor's came in to discuss the surgery. Brazil was up. He asked me a question. I put my finger up in the air. "Shhhh." I mumbled to him in a drug-addled state.

My father immediatly turned off the TV and tried to quiet my voice of dissent. The doctor looked at me questioningly, then chalked it up to the morphine and went on his way speaking about the surgery.


This is my favorite time.

More than the Olympics, or the World Series, or any other sport (to be honest I don't follow many), I love the World Cup. I love the excitement. I love the fans. I love the glee that people feel when they watch. I love the desperation, the joy, the hope that people have against hope. I love the post-game when the players exchange shirts or congratulate them.

I love the comraderie. I love that in other countries (perhaps not our own), everyone sits and watchs. One sport. One game. One time. Hell yes.

The Big Picture from the Boston Globe (one of my favorite blogs ever) chronicled the first weekend, and really I think it did an amazing job chronciling why The World Cup is the world's most watched sporting event. The people watching, the excitement, the tears. This is excitement. This is grand. This is The World Cup.

I'm a nerd about lots of thing (space, feminism, Doctor Who, books) none of them sports. But, once every four years (and occassionaly in between when I can actually watch games), I'm a nerd for football, the real football. And it's silly and I wake up early and jump up and down and

When we were kids, my sister and I would find the soccer commentary on the radio in English, and watch the game on Univision. We never had cable, so this seemed perfectly normal to us. We watched match after match and would run around our living room shouting and celebrating.

This is now. This is The World Cup.


I can't wait for the rest of the games. I can't wait to watch intently with everyone else. I can't wait to sit and scream and cheer and be a big ol' World Cup nerd.

Bring it on.


"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." says the mighty vuvuzela.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, indeed.