World Cup baby!!!

I am a self-proclaimed soccer fanatic. It's okay, I've been playing since I was eight years old. Of course, I hung up my proverbial competitive cleats once I graduated from college and I'm ashamed to admit that I can't even find my right Copa Mundial cleat! Honestly, I only have three pairs of soccer shoes in my house (okay, five if you count two pairs of my Puma sneakers). I have my Puma six studs, turf Adidas Copa Mundials and a cheapo pair of Puma Kings I bought on sale at Sports Authority. A pair of Nike women's cleats got thrown out earlier this year after I destroyed the front toe, but I've had those since college so I definitely got my money's worth out of them! This is a drastic step from when I was in high school and my soccer gear stashed in trunk of my car cost more than my car itself.

Sigh.... getting old certainly stinks!

Once every four years I get super excited. Okay, that's a lie because I get really excited during the Olympics and during the Women's World Cup too!

Anyway, I love soccer and I'm on cloud nine right now. Every four years I keep hoping that the USA Men's team will step up and play extremely well at the World Cup. Then, soccer will magically hurdle over the plateau and take off in this country. So far it's been baby steps and I swear a few steps backwards, but I keep holding on to that hope.

Next time I go up to my parent's house I'll have to track down some more pictures because a quick scan of my Shutterfly account pointed out that I have a pathetic collection of soccer pictures.

Ah the good ol' days.

My junior year of college my team had one of the lowest goals against averages in the country (seriously, we were ranked in the top 20!). Yet, when we went down to Trinidad and played their women's national team we got our butts handed to us. The Trini women moved the ball around like it was a highly sophisticated game of pinball. The ball never stopped!!!

Playing in Trinidad was one of the best experiences of my life. These kids stayed after the game and wanted our autographs. I swear to goodness because I sweat so much my hair looked brown and I wore # 8 this little girl asked me if I was Shannon MacMillan. That was an undeserving compliment!!! I loved Big Mac and wore #8 for her.

I love soccer so much that when the hubs and I were on our honeymoon I asked him if we could watch a soccer game. Thank goodness the English blokes we went with called it by it's true name, "Football." I should have been born across the pond! No, who am I kidding, I love America and I'll be screaming bloody, "USA! USA! USA!" when our men take on the English blokes in the first round.

Anyway, when the hubs and I decided to go to Brazil for our honeymoon, this was as close as I thought I would get to a soccer stadium. That spaceship looking blob in the background is the famed Maracanã Soccer Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Historians say 200,000 crazy fans packed into and on top of that stadium to watch a soccer game. Now, that's dedication!

Luckily for me, I married a sports fanatic as well. He just happens to be a bit nutty about baseball (and so am I). We had fancy dinner plans for one night, but the hubs overheard our English friends talking about going to a soccer game. The hubs quickly ditched our dinner plans and made arrangements for us to go to the game. Okay, I know going to a sporting event might not meet your particular parameters for a romantic evening whilst on your honeymoon, but the hubs could have offered me the Hope Diamond in one hand and soccer tickets in the other and he would still have a big old diamond in his hand!




Brazilians take their football very seriously.

I know I haven't been posting much and I can't make any promises, but I would expect a few more soccer related postings over the next month. It's going to be a beautiful World Cup!!!