Nerve Endings Firing Away

The FIFA World Cup 2010 kicked off today with both encounters in Group A ending in draws. South Africa surprised Mexico by holding them to a 1-1 draw and France and Uruguay played largely defensive football for 90 minutes to stay scoreless. But the real encounter at least in the United States is being hyped up endlessly everywhere. It is the USA – England match.

By some stroke of luck, both teams have landed up in the same group and will meet tomorrow in what some call a ‘grudge match’. I don’t know what grudge they are still holding; surely it can’t be the Boston Tea Party. We plan to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the match and I’m sure it will be packed although this town is half-empty this time of the year. Nearly all the bars and clubs in town are showing the live telecast of the World Cup; quite different from four years ago. We’ll definitely be supporting USA and not just because they are the underdogs but also because the US has significantly improved its game and are no longer considered pushovers in international football.

Whether the match lives up to the hypes or will England finally pull itself together for the World Cup stage and wipe the floor with United States, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, we’ll be enjoying the match dressed in navy blue amidst chants of U-S-A U-S-A.

Update: We were surprised to see Buffalo Wild Wings packed with American fans and we could wriggle into the last two seats at the bar. The atmosphere was festive with people dressed with blue and white. Every US attack was cheered and every England foul was booed. You can imagine the pandemonium when the English goalkeeper, Green fumbled the ball and let in the equalizer. Couple of our American colleagues from work had joined us and were equally surprised to see the enthusiasm for a sport that they thought had no support in this Texan town. One of them was watching the game for the first time and had to be filled in with the little details like what’s a yellow card and that it is not ok to touch the ball with your hand deliberately. Overall, it was a great experience and with any sports, it is best enjoyed amongst friends and fans.