OK, Now We're Excited

Two weeks ago I waxed cynical about the upcoming World Cup. We had been beaten down by negative reports about the ridiculous prices of game tickets, hotels, planes, food and transit systems.

I asked, sarcastically: Are we excited yet?

Two weeks later — hell, yes, we’re excited!

The whole world is watching. The stars have come out to play: Argentina’s wizard Lionel Messi (five goals!); Brazil’s young phenom Vinicius Junior, scoring four times and doing a sexy sideline dance after his most recent one; France’s Kylian Mbappe (four goals, a couple of them absolute rockets unleashed far from the net); Norway’s Erling Haaland (also four goals); and Portugal’s old horse Cristiano Ronaldo, who started slowly but is scoring again.

As for the U.S. team, they decimated Paraguay, 4-1, then took down Australia, 2-0. For last night’s game against Turkey, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino sent in the subs because we had already clinched our group. Our star player Christian Pulisic, back from a calf injury, returned in the second half when the game was tied (2-2) and almost scored. (His shot bounced off the goalpost). But in the shocking last seconds, round about midnight, Turkey found a way to put the ball in the net and won the game, 3-2.

And so I’m a little tired today. Yes, the USA fans are wondering what the hell happened. We’ll be reading fewer of those fantasy-laced news stories —“Can we go all the way? Could a ‘miracle on grass’ be in the cards?”

But we’ve advanced to — watch out, here it comes — the knockout round. Sudden death! Lose and you go home. We wait for next Wednesday, U.S. vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I’ll watch that game in a jammed and jazzed Pitkin Plaza, downtown near the New Haven Green. The Trinity Bar adjacent to Pitkin has been showing the games on a big outdoor screen, and it’s great fun if you can get there early enough to see the action.

I watched the first game at home and did the same last night, because the stakes weren’t so high and the game didn’t start until 10 p.m.— close to, I confess, my usual bedtime. But I stayed up late and watched the whole thing, then tried to sleep without having nightmares about that final Turkey kick.

However, for last Friday afternoon’s game vs. Australia, my wife Jen and I went to our neighborhood market, P&M Deli, knowing a small screen would be set up outside. I insisted we get there at least 45 minutes early so we could snag two seats near that screen. Jen thought I was nuts, a “worry wart” (do people still get called that?) but my neurotic planning paid off; we got folding chairs in the front row. I bought a bottle of wine at the adjacent liquor store and we settled in with some friendly “soccerheads” in the surrounding chairs. What a great way to spend a Friday afternoon in America!

But I’ll need the manic swirling excitement of that downtown plaza next Wednesday night. I’ll get there early, very early.

Meanwhile, isn’t this a nice distraction from Trumpworld and his war and how he’s killing ducks in the green muck of the Reflecting Pool? People are coming together from countries all over the world to see these games. I loved how the Scottish fans emptied every keg that the Boston bars could serve up (Boston ran out of beer!) and how they were dancing in the streets with their kilts and parading bagpipers. I wish their team had done better. We will miss them.