Reactionary

Is it really over? How can early morning games not be there? What will I do now that I’m not burning my eyes out on a TV screen or a computer screen watching games, replays, reading up on everyone. How cruel that it’s only every four years, but it means more because it is. The greatest event in sports draws to a close, the only one besides the odd Olympics and March Madness that I can manage to care about. The weight of history behind very match. The patience of such a game. The planning. The agony. The ridiculously attractive teams (yeah, it’s important to the female crowd so shut up). It’s all over.

On the last day, I had spent all day at work and barely managed to get myself released so I could tune in on Univision.com. I watched most of the match kneeling in front of my computer. It was far from a classic match with the dirty play early on dictating how the rest of the match would be played. There were a lot of Spanish chances and some clean Dutch chances that were not converted. Oh, the agony! But Spain prevailed on the back of a shot by Andres Iniesta who for the third time in the match had a clear shot and had wasted the two previous by waiting too long to shoot. They will run all night through the streets of Madrid tonight… less so in Catalonia. ¡Viva España! The larger part of the Americas celebrates with you tonight, like the Univision commentator said (paraphrased), “Wherever there is a Hernandez, a Ramirez, a Perez, all over the world, they celebrate.”

And now, with FIFA handing out its end of tournament individual prizes, I want in. Here’s my humble version:

MVP: An MVP is someone who means to most to his individual team. Diego Forlan was that man for unheralded Uruguay. Without him in the mix, they were nothing. No other player’s loss would have been felt more on the pitch. As someone wrote, who knows what he would have done if he’d been born a few miles southwest. David Villa is a strong runner up since it was his finishing that delivered Spain into the semis before he was hurt by the new formation upon Del Bosque pulling Torres from the lineup.

The How-To-Lose Award: Germany. They deserved to go to the final at least and it was only thanks to some unfortunate way the draw was made up and some early flameouts by big teams that they ended up playing the superior Spain in the semis and not in the finals, where it should have been. The real final was the semi between Spain and Germany. Classy words by Joachim Low after that match. Immense dignity from all the young players and some of the older leaders. This is how you lose. Germany historically would be a team I would never root for, but this one almost made me want to. They have years, though. They’re so ridiculously young. I imagine they’ll win a World Cup yet and I won’t begrudge them it and neither should you.

The Never Say Die Award: Uruguay. They went down fighting to the Netherlands and simply refused to give up. You don’t often see furious rallies in football simply because of the difficulty of scoring a goal, but that match came close.

The Zinedine Zidane Controversy Award: This is given to the player whose action on the pitch had tongues wagging more than the actual match in question: Luis Suarez, whose handball is still being replayed on ESPN. Nothing may ever match the infamous headbutt but Suarez came the closest this World Cup with his deliberate handball against Ghana that got him sacked from the game and the next, but it gave his team a chance. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done otherwise.

The Miss Congeniality Award: This is awarded to the team that showed the scrappiest sportsmanship and had the unlikeliest rooting for them. The United States. Thanks, guys, for making us look good in the eyes of the world who tends to hate US supercilious, ignorant behavior. You actually got 19 million of your countrymen to watch the game against Ghana, making a sport with no timeouts and minimal commercial breaks for a moment popular in an infamously attention-bereft nation.

The Showmanship Award: Argentina. So offensive-minded that they lead the tournament in goals scored while still in it before being rubbed out by Germany. All of their supporters knew they had a weak back line but what did it matter when they scored goal after goal after goal. Little Leo Messi slicing up midfields to feed his strikers goals on a silver platter, doing for them what Xavi and Iniesta do for him in Barcelona. Maradona on the sidelines looking like a benevolent Santa Claus of sorts, kissing all his players, cheering everything, spewing out quotable line after quotable line. Is was pure theatre. But if you live by the sword, you also die by it. They paid for their lack of defense but once gone, they were the team most missed.

The Goal of the Tournament: Let’s face it, there were a lot of great goals scored. There always are and it’s hard to nail one down, so I had to base it on the one that got me off the couch with a loud exclamation. That goal would have to be Carlos Tevez’ second goal against Mexico. It was a perfect kick and the power, passion, and drive he got off that perfect kick while also silencing any nannering about the first goal went unequaled in the rest of the tournament. Messi may be the head of the Albicelestes but Tevez is the heart and in those seconds, he proved it. It’s uncanny how the goal of the last tournament in Germany 2006 was eerily similar and also by an Argentine (Maxi Rodriguez) against, who else, Mexico. Honorable mention would have to goal to David Villa against Honduras, that sliding beauty that beat three defenders and the keeper.

The John Barrymore Award: This one’s not a positive one and it goes to Arjen Robben. I lost all respect for him and his Dutch teammates and possibly his whole frigging country for his clowning around that nearly ruined the final. Just play ball, jackass. A columnist called his faking injury “Robben falling like a clubbed seal”. Great simile. I was disappointed to find out the man is only 26 (though he looks 40) and we’ll have to see his crap in Brazil in 2014. Team Ghana is a runner up. Why they became such a darling of the tournament is beyond me.

The Walk of Shame Award: France, everything about them.

The Biggest Big-Name Flop: I have yet to see any brilliance out of Cristiano Ronaldo. If he wants to play by himself, he went into the wrong sport.

Most Missed: I loved Fernando Torres in 2006, all blonde hair and bravado. Where was he? Nowhere. He hurt his team and looked a moment away from tears throughout the tournament. I kept hoping for something but it never came.

Grandest Entrance: I had never heard of David Villa before this tournament. in Germany 2006, work prevented me from watching a lot of the Spain games and out of them, I remember Torres the most. But King David burst on the scene in a big way by single-footedly keeping Spain in this thing until someone else stepped up to score. And he’s 5’9″. None of his goals were easy tap-ins, they required creativity and doggedness. Brilliant. Viva Villa. Juan Carlos owes him a drink.

The Jon Stewart Media Award: Univision. Thank you for saving us from the sterile ESPN coverage with their tap-water-in-the-veins British commentators and their clueless American sidekicks. Thanks for airing the games online (ABC is stupid). Thanks for the *love* of football. Thanks for the asides, for the heartfelt valedictions, for the heated arguments, for the real feel of football.

Thanks, South Africa, for hosting. Thanks for the 32 teams for showing up. Thanks to FIFA for arranging it. The one good thing about this wild, beautiful month being over is I will no longer have to hear whining about officiating, suggestions for rule changes, or the idiotic drone of the vuvuzelas.

Goodbye, thanks for the game.

July 11th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

What a set of quarterfinal games!

Intrigue, excitement, last-minute dives, saves, and general madness and mayhem. This is why the World Cup is the greatest sports event on earth. It’s getting heart-breaking, though. In the two days between the last of the group games leading into the quarterfinals, I had dozens of conversations about all the teams and all the stars and all the possibilities. The one comment that stands out the most for me is, “There are a lot of good teams left, too bad someone has to lose.” Eight left among 32 who qualified for the tournament out of dozens the world over who did not. Those teams are pretty damn good and it’s a pity someone has to come away the winner. In a game like football where every goal is so precious and thousands of small heroics are invisible in the final tally at the end of a match, fates are decided by the smallest of things and often the most controversial.

The Netherlands, revitalized by the reappearance of its star Arjen Robben (a man who looks a full decade older than he is), stunned Brazil who couldn’t handle the pressure and went down in a blaze of panic. Then, that same afternoon Uruguay and Ghana locked horns in a game that went down to the wire of extra time before a surreal turn of events pushed it into a penalty kick shootout. Suarez is out for the next game. People are crying foul that Ghana was robbed, but really, the rule book states what is to happen in that situation and that’s what was done. The Ghana star missed the penalty kick (more a test of nerves than anything else) and hello PK shootout. I hate penalty kick shootouts as much as anyone, but really, what’s the alternative? You can’t continue to add extra time onto exhausted players.

I didn’t want to watch ARG v. GER because I thought it was far too early in the tournament for these teams to meet to produce a winner and a loser. I thought this was almost like a final. I guess I thought wrong. Germany, continuing to look ruthless, ripped Argentina to shreds, exposing what all us Albiceleste supporters have known but cheerfully ignored– that back line was weak and wouldn’t last a moment under serious pressure. They took the Argentines out of their stylish, cheerful attacking game and stabbed early, survived a good Argentina spell, and then whisked the game away. It wasn’t even close those last few minutes. Spain survived an obsessive Paraguay defense with a story line that though previously trod, still looks great at the end. The name is Villa, David Villa and it’s his amazing ability to finish against long odds that have kept the Euro champs in this thing.

Germany owes whoever ended Michael Ballack’s season free beer for a year. Spain owes David Villa a crown. The two meet on Wednesday for the second semifinal. I’m with Spain since they’re the last of the four teams I picked as my “to follow” lot on the ESPN FIFA app for iPhone/ iPod, even though I’m afraid this is a match they can’t win.

Still, VIVA VILLA.

P.S. Dear Del Bosque, please bench Fernando Torres and play someone else for the next match. Anyone. They’re playing with 10 men with him on the field. Loved him in 2006, but he’s just not with it this time.

July 3rd, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

This will be brief but I have to let it out since it’s gotten so annoying.

I’m tired off all the articles bewailing England’s fall in South Africa. I don’t want to hear anything more about that missed goal as if that would have turned the entire game around. I don’t want to hear the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair and the calls for people to be fired and stripped of their citizenship or the calls for heads that are all over the British press.

England was an overrated team and only advanced because of an easy draw. Shut up already. Deal with it.

Germany exposed them for what they are. They made them look fat, they made them look old, and they made them look boring. England didn’t play *horribly*. Playing horribly means that you as a team didn’t play to your standards, that you were way off your par. Well, they just got exposed that’s what. This team was never as good as they were led to believe they were. That’s gotta hurt.

That being said, I’ll be damned if I ever cheer for a German team and I’m not going to start now. But the current national team is good and now, England knows it.

June 28th, 2010 | Rant |  Print |  Send it | Say something

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

The Berry Chocolate Pavlova

Let me get one thing straight. I love chocolate as much as the next person but I couldn’t help raising an eyebrow when I saw the pictures of this month’s challenge. Brown meringue. Brown mousse. No relief in sight. And then I read the recipes. I think I felt some chest pain. Below are the lists of ingredients per section of the challenge:

Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone (don’t forget we made this a few months ago – get the printable .pdf HERE)
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

See what I mean? I knew it was going to have to make some changes.

I slowly shop for ingredients throughout the month for a Daring Bakers challenge and it lined up so I had everything ready on the 21st, a day boasting of the summer solstice, Spain v. Honduras, and a day of suffocating humidity in the city. I will admit I made the chocolate mousse the day before since it seemed like it would survive refrigeration without any bad side effects. I made 1/3 of the recipe.

The chocolate mousse is underway.

On the 21st, I came home from the gym and took the eggs out of the fridge and then made myself lunch. It didn’t take long for the eggs to warm up and I used two for the meringue since I wasn’t planning on making the whole recipe, but I love meringue so I made a little of of that part of it than the cream products. At the same time, with the two yolks, I made 1/3 of the recipe for the creme anglaise. And then the unthinkable happened. Sit down for the revelation. I broke the cream. I have never ruined a custard. EVER. I blame it on being distracted with the meringue, my goat cheese panino I was making, and washing the dishes. It was find when I added everything back to the pan with the eggs appropriately tempered. It must have boiled too fast. I hate wasting food. It’s an offense that should be punishable by, if not death, then something. I bend over backwards to not throw food away and have become adept at all kinds of Old World ways of saving produce and leftovers etc. But I had to throw this out. It looked like baby vomit and there was no saving it. It broke my heart, but there you have it.

The match was starting and I threw the meringue in the oven for its long, slow bake. Just after David Villa slammed the first goal home, I felt energized enough to try it again. This time, since it was the only food product I was making at the time, it came off without a hitch. I made a 1/6 of that recipe and finished it with some Creme de Cacao since I had no Sambuca and no wherewithal to drag myself to the state store just for that. The heat was positively withering.

My mother has made pavlovas as far back as I can remember and has always topped them with a simple topping of whipped cream and plentiful fruit. I made my pavlova in the spirit of that recipe. Unlike the challenge recipe, I made one and not many small ones. I hate individual servings of things, finding it far too fussy, something akin to doillies or “tablescapes”. Nigella Lawson agrees with me. See her recipe for creme brulee in Domestic Goddess. I also believe in baking but hate washing up and will take all kinds of shortcuts to not use too many dishes. Needless to say, I didn’t go near my piping bag and just freehanded it. I added some chocolate powder to the meringue, but only enough to turn it a light shade of sunkissed, not dark brown. I didn’t measure, I just sprinkled until it looked good to me. Thanks to the humidity, it turned out a little sticky when it was done, but not too bad.

I added a couple of sprinklings of milk to the mousse to soften it up enough to scoop out since it had been in the fridge overnight. It’s a smaller proportion than what the recipe calls for but lighter is better. I topped the pavlova with plentiful raspberries and blueberries, the first of the season. They should be the centerpiece of a pavlova, not the cream. I topped that with the other cream and then topped that with a few smashed brazil nuts. Almonds would have been better but I didn’t have any, so there.

A cross section of the pav.

Verdict: I didn’t like this recipe. I thought it was unnecessarily rich. Heavy cream lightly sweetened and then whipped makes a great contrast to the crunch to the sweet, brittle meringue. The fruit should be the star of the show. The addition of the mascarpone gave it an added richness and thickness I thought was unnecessary and unpleasant, but then this is coming from someone who abhors America-style cheesecake. It’s the summer. It’s hot, humid, merciless, and yet the fruit is starting to pop up in the markets. I wish the recipe chosen for this month would keep some of that in mind. I think I made the right choice by cutting a lot of the creams in amount and increasing the proportion of meringue and fruit. When will someone pick ice cream and a vessel to serve it in? I’d be all over that. As consolation, I made Raspberry Rose Sorbet from the great David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.

June 27th, 2010 | Food |  Print |  Send it | Comments (1)

At the end of two weeks of mad play, the end of the group stage is here and now for a quick rest before the first of the knockout games begin. And they’re not beginning in a timid way at all. It’s USA v. Ghana in a rematch of four years ago. Hopefully, the result will be different this time. Here is a list of the good, the bad, and the indifferent so far:

• Univision mops the floor with ESPN’s coverage. MART-in-ez? Really?
• Will everyone please shut up about Africa’s “disappointing performance”? Who in their right mind would think that their teams, in their infancy, would suddenly be controlling the tournament? Just because it’s in Africa this time? Please.
• South America is 5-5. Talk about that instead. And they didn’t need American handouts or pity or benefit concerts or anything to do it.
• The horns are ridiculous. Football isn’t the same without the chants and songs. FIFA should have grown a pair and banned them.
• To the bored, this game requires intelligence and patience. If you don’t have those qualities, go eat something fried and watch a reality show but leave the rest of us alone.
• French wine and cheese is the best on Earth. Their football team’s behavior was the worst example of unsportsmanlike conduct I have ever seen. This includes my time in the junior leagues. Someone get Madame Guillotine back in service.
• Italy’s out. Shit. How do we turn this somehow into another excuse to party?
• In my dream life, Fabio Cannavaro is still my husband.
• Belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to La Pulga. Never has such an annoying insect been so honored.
• How ridiculously attractive is the Spanish team?!
• Ronaldo, pass the ball!

And now, to get ready for tomorrow. Isn’t it nice to have a team on the world stage who far from being an embarrassment of cocky, entitled attitudes is actually embodying the best of the sport? Isn’t it? Now that’s something I can believe in. Watch them tomorrow. They’re making us proud.

June 25th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

I originally saw this story on ESPN.com but a recent Google search found this link instead. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the following quote regarding the World Cup:

“We don’t want our people to be preoccupied with seminude, crazy men jumping up and down who are chasing an inflated object,” said Sheik Mohamed Osman Arus, head of operations for the Hizbul Islam insurgent group.

Makes you appreciate our civilization, doesn’t it? I thought so.

June 24th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

I found this is the comment section of an OpEd piece in the New York Times:

There are three reasons soccer isn’t as popular as football, basketball or baseball in the States: First, it’s not an originally American game; it was invented in Europe. Secondly, it’s not a good T.V. sport. Even with pregame, a soccer game on TV lasts two, maybe two and a half hours. It consists of two uninterrupted, 45-minute halves with no time outs- not great for bathroom/beer breaks and leaves little air time for commercials, so there is less money to be made. Third, the United States is not the best at soccer. Americans, in our glorious arrogance, deny a certain amount of legitimacy to a game we’ve not yet become the best at. These three reasons are self-perpetuating as well. Soccer may never be embraced in the U.S. as it is in Europe, but that makes me like it all the more. Being a soccer fan in the U.S. is kind of like being a liberal in small town Louisiana. People resent you, but deep down, they know you’re right. ha ha!

It was written by one Doug from Louisiana and it is exactly right on. I love World Cup football because of the tragedy of the game, it’s non-obsession with fairness or an everyone-wins mentality. It’s tragic, it’s real, it’s a bit like life. I could never watch Premiere league football, though, since I hate pro sports for so many, many reasons, but World Cup football, even if played by pros, is the best sport on Earth. I hope “soccer” never catches on in the US in a big way because we’d ruin it, as we ruin and cheapen so many, many things. Its subtlety and tragedy and pathos would be gone.

I cheered the US team today on their last-minute win. That’s what you have to do, guys. It was a bit of an education. The only thing that matters at the end is the number of goals scored and the refs and the other players and the missed chances count for nothing when that last whistle blows.

June 23rd, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

By now, I’m sure everyone everywhere who has been following the World Cup has heard about the Call Made Yet Not at the end of the USA vs. Slovenia match. While commentators seem to universally agree it was a botched refereeing job and fans are howling at the moon with rage and feeling robbed, I hope that’s as far as the whole thing goes. Sure, I hope FIFA sends that ref home so he can’t botch another match. Sure, while watching the game I had no idea what he was calling and on whom and worse, neither did the commentators, meaning the ref hadn’t explained his call. That’s a cop out and only ads fuel to the fire. Sure, I was incensed that goal hadn’t counted. How can someone wave off a hard-fought goal for something other than swordplay? I can’t blame the players for mouthing off. I would have. In the distant past, I once did. I’ve hated my share of refs, convenient whipping posts in times of emotional travail at the end of a close must-win game. I hope, though, that US Soccer and the national team let it lie, that the words spoken and anger shown belonged to that night and that night alone.

A formal petition or whatever the sport equivalent of a lawsuit should never see the light of day. The players should put it behind them and go on. The world feels some sympathy for the US. That’s a sentiment that shouldn’t be squandered by coming off as a sore loser, which is what will happen if the incident isn’t allowed to die a natural death and fade away. Focus on the next game. Win it. Don’t get behind early. Unfortunately, things like that happen. A lot of things, far more important than a football match, get botched by the incompetence of others. That, is Life. Rise above it and go on. In sport-speak, the great teams win in spite of things like that. The US team needs to stop getting behind and show the world they’re a better team, if that’s indeed true. Get the defensive stops, get goals.

The great John Stockton once said something like not letting it bother you and play your own game. It was the aftermath of some horrid game in which the officiating seemed to have been bought and people all over the Valley were calling for the refs’ heads. He never did get his championship but he remains one of the sports figures I will always admire the most.

US soccer fans and the team, let it die and look on to the next match. It won’t get any easier.

June 19th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

The Past and the Present

I watched a game today of which I already knew the result. It was the first time I have ever done that.

June 17th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Say something

Good-bye, world. Good-bye, neighborhood cafes and boutiques and citywide events. Good-bye, friends.

In mere days, the critters will be out of school and all of us will be there as days turn into nights and then back into days, putting all the little broken Humpty-Dumptys back together again. The one upside? free AC as the city suffocates beneath the blanket of humid heat from now until September.

P.S. I finished reading The Big Short last night. I’m disgusted. I didn’t understand it all, all the machinations to make debt out of nothing, but then I think the point of the book is not many people did. They will never be punished for what they did.

P.S.S. I made vegetarian paella yesterday and actually managed to get the rice crispy on the bottom this time. Yay. The only unfortunate thing is I didn’t have a bottle of red Spanish wine to drink with it.

The first paella of the season.

June 14th, 2010 | Food, General |  Print |  Send it | Say something

US ties it up

It started yesterday with host South Africa scoring the first goal against Mexico. The second game was The Team I Hate The Most vs. Uruguay with no one scoring. It’s the World Cup. The entire world is watching… except for the fat spoiled Americans who need instant gratification. I had a conversation with a coworker in the lounge yesterday. He doesn’t get why football (aka soccer) gets everyone all psychotic. It’s not a sport the American temperament can handle. It requires patience. Plays open up slowly over the huge expanse of the pitch. Shots are more blocked than they are allowed to pay off. The rules haven’t changed to make it easier to score. Americans don’t get games with low scores. They don’t have patience. They can’t appreciate the rare flashes of light through a long game. They don’t understand how a final score of 0-0 can be an acceptable result. They want flash and a payoff and a winner. Soccer thwarts that. It’s the world’s game.

My coworker wanted to know why. I don’t know why, but I can imagine it’s because, at least partly, in that it’s the world’s most democratic game. You only need a ball to play. You don’t need a court or a pitch or pavement. You don’t even need shoes. You don’t need to know a lot of rules. You just need a will. That starts the love for the great game, a love that lives in every town in every country in the world except for this one. The best talent gets picked up and coached and watched and paid and emulated and funneled into the club leagues. But even then, as these highly paid athletes don their national jerseys to play as one, it’s still a democratic game. Some of the best players have come out of the worst poverty in the world’s cities. And these favelas in Rio make American inner cities look like wealthy, if violent, enclaves. Height doesn’t help you in this game (see last year’s semi match between Germany and Italy). Lifting weights will only get you so far. Shin guards help against the worst of the other players’ shoes but they won’t help you when you take a face full of grass on the pitch. The only thing that gets you is age, and its reversal is the only thing money can’t buy.

I believe the English invented the modern game. It figures, what with idiosyncratic rules like stoppage time. Today I watched England slump off the field looking embarrassed when the USA team managed to tie them on a missed save by their goalie. Thanks to Univision, I was able to watch the game live through my computer. It was better anyway. The ESPN broadcasters they’re using are British since I guess they couldn’t find enough Americans to do the job. Brits keep their heads in tense situations, most famously in scenarios like Dunkirk. But passion is adverse to their nature. The Mexican commentators were over their heads with excitement over a game that cannot possibly affect Mexico at this early stage of the tournament.

Tomorrow’s a bit of a rest with two games with people who won’t win anything and the headliner being Germany and Australia. I can hardly wait to see my winner pick of Spain and the ridiculously gorgeous Italian team and top-ranked Brazil. Any one can beat anyone else at any time. This is the only international sporting contest where countries can field teams on the fairest ground. True, cold countries may have once been at a disadvantage, but with modern indoor stadia and temperature control, that’s a thing of the past (see the competent Dutch team and 2006 third-place Germany). Teams are meeting on the most equal ground available. It doesn’t matter if you have sandy beaches or craggy cliffs or are land-locked or live half your life in the sea. It doesn’t matter much if you’re rich or not. Brazil’s players come from the favelas and they’re ranked #1. The well-funded USA team has to enter as just another humble participant.

I love this game. Let’s play.

Photo: As appeared in the NY Times. Darren Staples/ Reuters

June 12th, 2010 | News |  Print |  Send it | Comments (3)