World Cup Warmup

The World Cup is around the corner and I can't lie -- I'm getting pretty excited. Yes, it means watching games at 4:30 am, but that's part of the fun of it... right? Anyway, thinking about soccer reminded me of a great column by Bill Simmons of his experience going to a USA-Mexico soccer match at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City last year. It's just crazy. It also kind of makes me really hate Mexico. (P.S. Letty, if you're reading this, I still think you're cool.)

Anyway, the most anticipated match of group play is about 48 hours away: USA-England. For those of you who don't know, England is really good at soccer. In fact, the game was invented there. But while Americans may know close to nothing about soccer, you can't accuse them for not being patriotic enough: in a New York Times poll, 63 percent of NYTimes readers believe the US is going to win the game, versus 37 percent who believe England is going to win the game. Now if you think that's optimism, listen to this: according to Nielsen, 46 percent of Americans believe the US will win the World Cup. Uhh... what?! Either the people polled think the World Cup is a basketball tournament, or the Obama administration needs to get these guys to run some approval polls for them.

Anyway, check out a fun World Cup-themed podcast from the aforementioned Bill Simmons with Michael Davies, who's actually a TV producer but very well-rounded in soccer. (You actually have to scroll down to the archived podcasts and click the BS Report from 6/1.) Plus, Michael Davies is British so he just sounds like he really knows what he's talking about.

Let's close with two thoughts on the NBA Finals: first, when are the Big Three all going to show up on the same night? Good Lord. Every night so far it's been the Big One featuring the Washed Up Other Two and it's absolutely killing Boston.

Second thought: in Game Three, there was a moment when Rasheed Wallace took a three-pointer and (as expected) he bricked it. ABC's Mark Jackson then said something along the lines of, "I like that shot. Rasheed is a dead-on three point shooter." That was easily the LOL moment of the Finals so far, with Doc Rivers running on the court to call timeout in Game Two a close second.

P.S. Scroll down to my last post and read what I wrote about Ray Allen. I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!