So it's been a while since my last post (have I said that before?). I hasten to add that my last post was on June 4, a mere 5 days before the World Cup. I still feel it is one of the few events that it worth turning your life upside down for. I have a few observations that I'm going to share, whether you like it or not.

1. As a US fan, I watched the team for 270+ minutes, and was actually happy for 3 of them. Those 3 minutes occurred after Clint Dempsey put one in on Ghana, and before the referee whistled Oguchi Onyewu for a foul on a shameless dive in the box, awarding Ghana a penalty that essentially sealed the US's fate.
2. It was nice to see the teams that were actually good at soccer playing deep into the cup. None of this Senegal, South Korea, Turkey, Greece (see Euro 2004) stuff. If I'm watching the world cup, I want to see the Italys and Brazils of the world in the quarters, and we did.
3. Can we please get instant replay into world cup football? Before all the purists erupt into violent spasms of protest, let me say that I too see game 'flow' as sacred to the sport, so lets only consider options that won't interrupt flow. For example, if a penalty is awarded, play has already been stopped. We at home already get to see the foul from 3 or 4 angles in less than 30 seconds, so why can't a ref? Check quickly for a dive, and then let play resume. Another option that wouldn't interrupt flow at all would be to let play continue after fouls, but have a 5th referee review replays of fouls to award yellow cards after the fact for obvious dives. I would estimate that perhaps 10% of fouls in this cup could be termed as blatant play acting, and were clearly so upon review of the tape. Same thing in offside non-calls resulting in goals. Play has stopped because a goal has been scored. Just take 10 or 20 seconds while the celebration's happening to confirm that everyone really was onside.
4. Everyone has to have an opinion on Zidane, and I guess I do, too. My take is that his exit didn't hurt the French at all. Barthez is a spaz in goal, and kind of short to boot. The French probably weren't going to score in the game's final 10 minutes anyway, so even if Zidane makes the penalty that Trezeguet missed, there's no way that Italy misses before France does (remember that Roberto Baggio has not been with the Azzurri for some time now). Zidane's head butt is inconsequential, but useful for giving Zidane more noteriety than he had, if that's possible.
5. Why fire Arena? He's gone anyway, but let's be realistic and say that there's no way anyone else will do better. The only thing a Klinsmann will do is produce a mirror image of what happened in Germany this last world cup, where vast hoardes of Klinsmann skeptics were instantly transformed into true believers when he won (and made a soccer team that was fun to watch). These people then bawled like they had been forced to eat Schneeballen when Klinsi up and quit last week. The mirror image refers to my prediction that everything will happen in reverse - a small band of soccer fanatics will be giddy upon the hire of Klinsmann. Gradually, the team will fail to produce results and Klinsi will turn giddy supporters into skeptics who cry when they realize that Sunil Gulati gave truckloads of money to Klinsmann and now can't fire him for fear of hurting his own credibility. Oh, and don't get me started on how bad it will be if Gulati picks an MLS coach to head the team. That's what Areana was, too, but Arena is Arena.

Well, I got through soccer and nothing else. This is sad, since I really don't know anything about the sport, but have strong Campbell-style opinions anyway.