Saturday, June 10, 2006

Day 1: What we learned...

Opening match day is always a time to celebrate. A time to come together. A time for giant inflatable balloon creature manufacturers around the world to cheer! Also...they play some soccer.

Such was the case yesterday, and here are a few things to take away from the matches.
1) Germany likes the long kicks (and they do it pretty well). Witness: 40 yards of blistering speed from Herr Fringes. Witness: 20 yards of back breaking arching doom from Herr Lahm. Witness: Jurgen Klinsmenn dancing about like an idiot on the sidelines.

2) ESPN likes using foriegn players names as puns. KLOSE Encounter. KLOSE Call. KLOSE One. Put some friggin' KLOSE on! (wait, that last one wasn't used).

3) Minnesota theme parks have a surprising number of Ecuadorian immigrants. I watched the second game in a restaurant during a field trip to Valley Fair (I assume noone was injured during that time). All the waiters/bus boys/off duty park employees would halt whatever they were doing to watch any chance that went towards the box. After one goal it was a mad house, after the second passersby came in to see exactly how a roller coaster sized yell could come from a dingy dining hole. Long story short, I enjoyed that game, a lot more than I thought I would.

Today, we get set for more valuable life lessons, and perhaps the secret to David Beckham's coiffure.

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