World Cup Preview

It’s crazy to think that the World Cup is starting in just over a week’s time.  I haven’t given it much thought at all.  I don’t really know who made or who didn’t make the England squad.  Other than Belgium, I don’t know who else is in England’s group.  I don’t know what date and what time England’s games are – the time difference between the US and Russia would suggest that most games will be on early for me, so hopefully I can catch them before heading into work.  I don’t really have any high expectations for England at all – to be honest, I don’t have any expectations at all.  We’re not going to win it, but at least I hope we’re taking a young team who can get some good experience for future tournaments.  I don’t even know if England are a “good” side anymore – maybe, but history says that they will choke on the bigger stage.  Even without the US involvement (embarrassing), I think and hope that all the games are being aired over here – I think Fox shelled out a lot of money on the rights, so I would be very surprised if they aren’t showing them all (there is at least one Fox sports channel not available to me – so guaranteed they will air some games there…).  The few trailers I’ve seen have, probably unsurprisingly, focused on Ronaldo and Messi.  As long as they bring in some English play-by-play commentators, I’ll be happy.  I don’t give a monkeys who they drag out for the studio analysis for each game – that waste of time is getting automatically fast forwarded for each game.  So yes, this is probably the first major “soccer” tournament involving England that I’m not invested in at all – hopefully that will mean I can enjoy it more!