Oops...

...I almost let June get by without a blog post! I'm shooting from the hip tonight, as I type this, I'm waiting for an idea to pop into my head. So....... how about this 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament? Sarcasm aside, I really have been keeping up with the USA matches & even some of the matches between other countries as well: guess I now have the subject of today's post - see how quickly it happens when I stop procrastinating & just put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, rather :-)

I'm hardly a huge international soccer fan though, I only even know of a couple of popular fútbol clubs such as the Manchester United (of England) or FC Barcelaona (of Spain). Hell, outside of a few championship runs during the inaugural seasons of Washington's soccer club, the DC United, I've never passionately watched Major League Soccer (MLS) in this country either.

But this year, I actually have a true interest in the sport, so I've been paying attention during any of the coverage I run across lately. It's definitely an exciting sport, even by American standards (we love to see tons of scoring in our own US pastimes like football & basketball). I'm now able to appreciate the level of defense & coverage in those 0-0 or 1-0 games, my favorite element of soccer are the shootouts sometimes required to break a tie. 

The shootouts feature 1-on-1 match-ups between the goal keeper & an opposing team's player. By the way, I'm super fascinated by the goal keeper for both teams, so I guess it makes perfect sense that I'm most excited to see the rare shootout in soccer. I'm that way with hockey too - I always gravitate towards the goalie!

Oh & how cool is it that goal keepers get to wear uniform colors that completely differ from the rest of their squad??? Plus, they're the only ones allowed to use their hands to contact the soccer ball during play - if I'd played as a youth, I'd definitely have been 1 of the kids lined-up to tryout at goal keeper. Tomorrow afternoon the US, having advanced to the 2nd stage of the tournament last week, will face Belgium... I'll be watching - Go USA!