World Cup Fever

Every 4 years, my world becomes that much more simple, slower, and enjoyable as the FIFA World Cup takes over my life for a good month.

This year is no exception as the drama and excitement of World Cup 2006 in Germany is unfolding as the tournament is nearing completion of the group stage. The beautiful game has the ability to make it a beautiful life. No other sport is able to truly capture the wonder of the global population like soccer.

The tournament has already had moments of sheer brilliance, moments of despair, moments of exhilaration, and every moment has been exactly what I needed as the school year is coming to a close. How many times a day do I check the web for live updates, highlights, reviews, other blogs, or any other miscellaneous World Cup information? Too many to count. How quickly do I hop in the car and race home to catch the start of not just the games that have teams I'm hoping for, but any game in the tournament? I know many others have the same World Cup fever that I have. It spreads so quickly. It's a true joy to also see the non-soccer fanatics and casual viewers being swept up in the excitement.

It's, of course, no surprise to see the talented Brazilians breezing through the group stage into the round of 16 and they clearly demonstrated their prowess today with a solid thrashing of the Japanese. With all the talk of a overweight star-striker and his lack of performance, the aging veteran Ronaldo popped in a couple of goals in the victory and is on the verge of becoming the greatest goal scorer in tournament history.

Also qualifying in the group are the Socceroos from Australia. The upstart Australians tied Croatia today in an exciting match with drama down to the wire. With the end in sight and a flurry of red cards, the Australians were able to hold off the Croatia despite shaky goaltending. Schwarzer was on the bench today.....not sure what's wrong with Hiddink (manager)...I'm pretty sure we;ll see Schwarzer between the pipes in the round of 16. How Kewell is it to see the Roos advance?...Hehe...couldn't resist the pun as it was may favourite player Harry Kewell who popped in the tying goal with a tidy finish into the corner. Atta boy Kewell!!!

I'm also greatly looking forward to my favourite team the Netherlands and my other favourite player Arjen Robben taking it to Portugal and the arrogant Christiano Ronaldo in the next round. I know C. Ronaldo has loads of skill but I still can't stand him for some reason....must be the greasy hair or something.

This year is also the first year I have really been able to appreciate the amount of coverage the World Cup is receiving this year. Not only are Rogers Sportsnet and TSN teaming up, but they are even showing every single game of the World Cup....loving it. Also the official World Cup Site by Yahoo has been tremendous in the content they are offering and being able to effectively deal with the amount of traffic the site is receiving.

In closing....ahhhh...forget the closing...there are games on....stop reading this...go enjoy!!