Can’t tell you how many times I’ve logged onto the FIFA site in the past four years: many, many, many.

And have always seen that World Cup ticker couting down.

I just looked at it. Holy sheeeeeeet. Under 9 hours to go.

Time for the World Cup. At last, the one America doesn’t have to explain!!

In the run up to the World’s Greatest Sporting Event, I’ve heard a few doubters.

I won’t call them out by name –  sadly I could, because that’s what happens in the relatively small, incestuous and aging world of sports reporters – but only a few are singing the same old tired song. Waaaaahhhh – why do we have to care about the World Cup??

For God’s sake: that’s as old school as saying I don’t want to know what you had for breakfast from Twitter. It’s like saying Why should people read their news from anything other than a piece of paper?  It’s totally missing the point. Technology is here. The World Cup is here (not exactly old school, compared to most major sporting events, but deal with it). Come on people,

The skepticism is not as bad as it has been in the past. Usually by now, the anti-soccer drumbeats are loud, the ridiculous comparisons to American sports, the pretentious pronouncements that soccer just isn’t a very good sport – in the past they have become deafening. But those have largely been missing in this cycle. For obvious reasons – most people dig the World Cup.

Yet there are still the stupid hangers-on to the old school Why Can’t They Use Their Hands, Why Don’t They Score More crowd. The lamest doubt of all is (yeah, I’m talking to you G)  saying that people only care about the WC because ESPN is promoting it. That ignores all the history of the past 16 years:  what led ESPN to think it was totally worth investing millions in the World Cup because SO MANY Americans were riveted to it. In 2002 the ratings for games (from Seoul and North Korea) that started here in the early AM were ridiculously good. The ratings for 2006 were even better.

Anyone who has had even a passing involvement with the World Cup doesn’t need a tutorial on why this is obviously The World’s Greatest Sporting Event. It’s so clear and obvious if you’ve ever experienced it.

Everyone cares. Everyone is passionate. The storylines are not only about sport but about history, struggle, recognition, oppression, beauty, anger, resentment, dismissal, courage.

This isn’t just about sports. It’s about the world that we live in.

Two of the many, many, many, many great sporting events I’ve covered in my life have been the World Cup. I would say THREE but 1994  was so weird because it was in the United States and was basically like writing a tutorial every time out. It was a little surreal.

But, oh, 1998 in France (best assignment ever) was sublime. And 2006 in Germany was fantastic. I had a ticket for Seoul in 2002 but the Mercury News ate it rather than send me there ( brilliant idea considering that the Earthquakes’ Landon Donovan was the revelation of the American team).

But there’s nothing like being at the World Cup with my buddy Michelle. Though SA will be hectic, cold (it’s winter there), dangerous and stressful, I wish I was on this adventure with her again.

Second best to being there: I’ll watch much of the World Cup from Western Europe (where I vote it should almost always be, based on passion and quick trains).

But until board my Lufthansa flight, I’m in front of my TV. The countdown is over. And thankfully, the doubters have almost aged out.

And you can follow me on twitter @annkillion

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 5:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.