I'm trying to give the World Cup a "fair shake"

I don't think it is that much of a secret that a majority of Americans don't particularly care for football of the soccer variety. I probably like it a bit more than most considering that I went to college on an athletic scholarship to play football of the soccer variety. However, we can't really change the environment that we were brought up in and therefore it is kind of difficult for me to be excited about the World Cup just like it would be a hard sell to get British people to get excited about NFL or basketball.

I have been watching a few of the games as well as keeping up with the stats, particularly of the extreme underdogs and of course, my own nation.

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Something I do find rather amusing is that it is pretty evident that the USA and all somewhat knowledgeable fans kind of expect the US to lose. When they pick up even any sort of a win, regardless of who it is against, the celebration almost seems like the reaction a team would have if they had won the entire thing. Take the game against Paraguay for example. The celebration after winning that game was so huge that one would think that the States had beaten one of the best teams in the world - which Paraguay is not.

I don't keep up with the sport all that much but I was aware of the fact that while South American is considered extremely good at football of the soccer variety out of all continents on earth, Paraguay is and has been considered one of the worst of all of them. They are ranked something like 55 in the world when compared to all other nations, and a victory of them is not akin to a victory over Argentina or Brazil.

When the USA plays Australia today, that should be a real winner because these are two teams with rather undeserved arrogance that simply abounds. Whoever wins this game will then have 2 wins and is very likely to advance to the knockout stages and I suppose that would be a big deal. At the moment I am only aware of one team that has already advanced and that is the USA rival, Mexico. Good for them I suppose. I have no problem with Mexico but their fans certainly do seem to take issue with the United States and politically speaking anyway, I suppose I can understand why that is.

For me, the World Cup isn't a priority in my day and I will tune in kind of only if I don't really have anything else to do. The USA games might pique my interest a bit but when I say that I don't tend to enjoy games where it is possible to have a 0-0 draw at the end of it, I am not suggesting that the world is wrong and I am right, I am just saying that this is not what I consider to be entertainment.

Thus far I have watched only one game from start to finish and I will say this: I do enjoy the near complete lack of commercials. I do think the "hydration breaks" are BS and this was put in there intentionally just so they could have a chance to throw some more adverts at us, USA style.

I am sure there are some of you out there that are loving every minute of this and I don't fault you for that. Just like I would never expect a German or Chilean to be at all interested in the NFL, I can completely understand why people would be super excited about all of this.

Do what you like, and have fun.