For The Cup

I haven't been commenting ion the World Cup soccer tournament on my blog this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been watching it. (A lot of Americans haven't, because we're not in it, just as a lot of Americans don't bother worrying about climate change because we're not in the Paris Agreement; after all, that's a hoax, isn't it?) I've been keeping my comments on the World Cup to my Facebook page up to now.

But what a tournament! Defending champion Germany made a miraculous comeback in Group F play, only to flunk out of F against South Korea and fail to make the round of sixteen. Spain made it into the round of sixteen only to be upset by host country Russia (who in turn were eliminated by Croatia) and Brazil, the perennial World Cup favorite and the New York Yankees of international soccer, got knocked out of Cup contention by Belgium.  Belgium!

Croatia goes against England today in the match to determine who will face France, who eliminated Belgium, in the Cup final on Sunday, and though England looks like the favorite, another upset in this Cup tournament of upsets can't be ruled out. It's going to be an exciting semifinal and it's going to be an exciting final, whoever France faces.

As for American World Cup hopes in the future, at least future World Cup hopes that only involve soccer players with Y chromosomes . . . well, who's ready for football? I mean the NFL variety, of course, because American football - fútbol Americano - is the only sort of football Americans care about, even if no one else on the planet (except in Canada) does. And NFL football is a lot like our current environmental policy. It is stupid. It is, if I may say, crazy. And it doesn't make sense.