Geography

A clear sign I've been in the US too long - my geography knowledge has regressed.  A lot.  Give me a globe, and I couldn't tell you where Cape Verde or Curacao are (both countries are in the World Cup).  Indeed, I wasn't even sure which region Curacao qualified for the World Cup from (in fact, it's the same as the US - if the US weren't one of the hosts).  I'm also not sure I care for some of the "renaming" of countries during the World Cup - I'm used to Czech Republic instead of Czechia, and especially Turkey instead of Turkiye.  Hilariously, the Turkish government doesn't want to be associated with the bird - hence requesting the name change.  That seems rather shallow.    

Trail Cam Update

I'm sorry to say, no more bear sightings over the last few weeks.  But there is definitely a coyote in the neighborhood.

USA 2-0 Australia

Congrats to the US for making the knockout stages.  But as I've been telling friends and colleagues, I still don't think you're anywhere near good enough to win the World Cup.  But try telling that to the fickle, fair weather American fan.  Especially after another win.  Another win against a very mediocre opponent.  But I'm glad Seattle did good.  The crowd was hot, the city was rocking, the weather cooperated, and all the scenic shots made Seattle look amazing.  This was probably the biggest sporting event to ever take place in the city.  That might be eclipsed later in the tournament, when we have 2 knockout games being held here.  Those are the ones I really tried to get tickets for, but I just couldn't justify it at the price they were offering.  I doubt that price will come down much at all nearer the games.  Tickets for today's game were going for at least $2000.  And that's for the cheapest seats.  Nope.  But I'm glad I didn't have to go anywhere today - apparently driving anywhere near the city was horrendous (and I've already had to deal with driving loads over the last couple of days just to attend a couple of team lunches).  I think they close a lot of downtown to traffic during the World Cup matches.  It looked absolutely packed.  And it looked like a great atmosphere, but I can't deal with those kinds of crowds.  I'm happy to watch the game at home in "RealTime4K" on TV. 

Awkward

From this:

To this:

Billy no-mates.

England 4-2 Croatia

Well, I don't think I'm going to make any more World Cup predictions.  This game did not go how I expected it to go.  At all.  I missed watching it live as I was at a Chinese restaurant for a team lunch (among the culinary delights that I did not partake in - sea snails and jellyfish).  But it was impossible to avoid the score - we had a banquet room upstairs, but there was a big screen downstairs showing the game.  A good result for sure, showing some encouraging resilience and some surprising attacking flair (predictably, we are always going to be a threat at set pieces) - but there is an awful long way to go in the tournament, so I am not going to read too much into the performance.  In past World Cups, you didn't mind if you started the tournament slowly as you really wanted to peak in the later rounds.  But with this stretched out tournament, including an extra knockout round, I don't know if you can really build up that momentum in the same way.  But a win is a win, and it does somewhat take the pressure off for the next couple of games - which cannot be a bad thing.

Goal Music

There may be many things I dislike about this World Cup, but one of the things I do approve of is the playing of some music in the stadium when a team scores.  It seems like each country has their own choice - so for example when Mexico scored, we got some mariachi music.  I believe the US plays the guitar solo from Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird.  I'm wondering what will be England's goal music?  I pray to God it isn't Three Lions.  I hope we get to find out tomorrow.  Just for reference, this was apparently our choice in the last World Cup (though I don't remember them playing it after every goal):

Roasting

We are currently enduring a mini heatwave.  This is the third consecutive day where we are under a heat advisory.  I've had to drag my portable AC units out of hibernation for their first use of the year.  But they are not helping me sleep well.  But I think that is as much to do with my mattress as it is with the hot temperatures.  I've just ordered a mattress topper to see if that helps - otherwise I fear I will need a new mattress.  The heatwave was also unfortunate timing for the first World Cup match being held in Seattle (Belgium vs Egypt) today.  Perhaps one of the few games where the hydration breaks were actually necessary.  Apparently the match was well attended but there were still some empty seats.  And the ticket prices were still outrageous.  They are going to be even worse for the next game in Seattle, featuring the US.