Jillian Chantal

The World Cup happens every four years.  I have a kid that played high school soccer so we have been a soccer following family for a number of years.  The USA has not done well historically in the World Cup. Being first in our division this time around was the first time since 1930 (the beginning of the World Cup).  There were a number of years that we did not even qualify to be in the thing at all.  I am hopeful that the success of this team and the fact that children are playing more soccer in their city leagues now means that soccer is on an upswing in this country. I have always been a hockey fan and soccer is just hockey on grass. 

My son is so excited about Landon Donovan’s last second goal in Wednesday’s game (the goal that let us move on to the next level) that he plans to name his first son after him. Not sure how the girlfriend feels about that but he says she can  name the next kid.  They are not even engaged and he already is telling her what she has to name her kid.

The World Cup started in 1930 and has been staged every four years since then except for 1942 and 1946 because of WWII.  There are preliminary games held over the three years between the games to determine who qualifies for the actual tournament.  From the 3 years of preliminary games,  32 teams from around the world are chosen to play in the finals.

In the history of the Cup, Brazil has the record for most wins with five championships.  This year’s tournament has been really wild and unpredictable. The French and Italians played the championship match in 2006 – Italy won- that was a wild game.  The one French guy head butted an Italian and got a red card near the end.  Both these teams are out this time around very quickly.  I believe some of the teams got a little cocky this time around and didn’t take the lower seeded teams seriously and they got smacked down because of it.  

 The tournament lasts for a month.  This one ends July 11, 2010.  Brazil will be the host nation in 2014.   USA plays Ghana next on Saturday, the 26th. 

A red card puts a player out of the game. A yellow card is a warning.  Depends on the level of the foul. The ref carries one card of each color in each pocket. You will see him whip it out periodically.