Let The Games...Begin!

I have an confession to make...

I'm a soccer junkie.

 It just so happens, right now is the worst/best time for a soccer junkie.

This week the World Cup began in Qatar. Because not everything revolves around America or its fans, the games are broadcast early in the morning here and run until the early afternoon. If I want to watch the first game of the day in the opening round, I have to get up at 3am. 

I mean, I'm a junkie, but not that much of a junkie.

I'm a fan of two different teams, the Americans and the Danes. The Americans have played two games--two draws--and need to beat Iran to make it to the knock-out round. The Danes play France tomorrow morning. Don't know if they'll beat the defending reigning World Cup champions. Then again, I thought America would be blown out by England. 

Shows you how much I know.

Even the most crazy soccer fans in America can't hold a candle to your average fan across the world. They're nuts, but in a good way. I wish we supported our national team the way other countries support theirs. 

There's a good chance, both of my teams don't advance. It's very possible. Of course, watching the tournament isn't as fun, but being a junkie, I've got to keep watching until the final whistle sounds and then goes quiet, not to be heard again until four years have passed.

Alas, the life of a soccer junkie.

Watching The Denmark Men's National Team...Taking Me Back

It's soccer season. Soon the airwaves will be flooded with college and pro football games, baseball pennant races, and in a few months basketball and hockey in a few months. But in the summer there's soccer.

I don't know if our local MLS team will make the playoffs this year. They're still fun to watch. And in addition to league play, qualifying rounds for next year's World Cup are taking place. On Monday I came across the Denmark Men's National Team play Armenia.

Watching the DSB play took me back more than thirty years.

In the mid-1980s I lived in Denmark. I was there during the 1986 Mexico World Cup. I hope I never forget how incredible that experience was, especially when the Danes beat the eventual world cup-champions Germany. The whole country exploded. That singular event made me a fan of national team play ever since.

Hopefully the Danes qualify for next year's world cup. They don't always. It's tough when you're a country of five million plus from a nordic lands to field a team that can compete with the Italians, the French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the British, and especially the Germans. I don't know which teams they must go through to make it to the world's biggest dance, so getting there is quite an accomplishment.

The Danes prevailed on this occasion. I'll follow the team as they make their run, even if I can't watch all the games. If I could watch any team play live, other than the US teams, I'd watch the Danes, and when they yell, "I am Red, I am White. I am Danish Dynamite!" I'll feel right at home.