MuLtiPle BaSkEtS nOt ThE aNsWeR

I'm not sure what it is, but there is something so much more somber and tragically final about losing a World Cup match than at any other sporting event. Maybe it's the fact that it only happens every four years and the knowledge that in four years many of the players will be gone or at least no longer at their peak performance... or the fact that you can't just say, "We'll get them next year!" Unlike the Olympics, where you can cheer for multiple athletes in different events, the World Cup only gives you one egg and one basket. {sigh} It always makes it so much harder to stomach a loss.

Perhaps my remedy would be to come from a country with a long line of winning such as Brasil, Germany, Italy or the most recent winner France. However, this year Italy and France's hopes were dash much sooner than mine, both going home in the first round. Plus, the fact that they were favored teams only makes their fall that much more painful. Instead, I've learned not to put all my eggs in one basket. Instead, I root for the home team (but never expect too much) and root for the motherland (England) on the side. That way, once the U.S. loses, which is usually does quite quickly, I root full time for England. But, I'm learning that putting my eggs in multiple baskets creates quite scrambled emotions.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fervor surrounding this amazing event and it's provided some of my favorite college memories. For example, in 2002 staying up until 2am or waking up at 5am to watch a match was a normal event for me and my friends. We'd head to some dingy late night pizza place or huddle around the best TV we could find (remember, it was college and pre-"you don't have a cell phone/laptop?!" boom) to cheer on our teams. Then, throughout my mission it was the hyped-up talk that a few of us would visit our German friends and partake in the 2006 festivities together. For one, it gave us something to trash-talk about for 18 months since we all hail from different countries; it also made saying goodbye that much easier, "it's okay, I'll see you at the World Cup!" Alas, marriages, finances and jobs prevented that amazing plan from coming to fruition. However, I managed to share the experience with a few friends via IM while we watched it in our respective locales.

Despite my love of the game, it always ends quite somber for me. I remember once getting up and walking out of my friend's house without saying a word...they all knew... I was absolutely gutted. I think that moment was only topped this weekend when, euphorically high after Donavon's injury time goal against Algeria, a large group of friends gathered on Saturday to watch the U.S. v Ghana game. It was full of anticipation, outrage, snarky comments and boisterous cheering--it was fantastic. When the second half ended in a tie I was secretly hoping we'd go into penalty kicks because hello, we have one of the best keepers EVER. But when Ghana scored in the first few minutes of overtime, I prepared myself. I just sat slumped on the couch, reconciling my optimistic "we could still score, we always score late" pep talk with the "prepare yourself to be disappointed" sermon. It was horrible, and made worse when it's 20+ people sitting in a room not wanting to talk--I've never seen a room clear out so fast! Then, add insult to injury, I woke-up on Sunday morning only to watch my back-up team get their behinds handed to them on a silver platter by Germany. Multiple people came up to me at church and in an aside voice said, "Sorry about England."

In one weekend my World Cup teams were both sent packing. I could say, "four years goes by fast!" but who am I kidding? Yet, despite losing both my teams in the same weekend, I've got more fantastic memories (watching games on a bus or in a pub whilst in the Netherlands for work, or gathered around my friend's [much larger/better quality than anything we had in college] HD flat screen TV. Plus, there's always something great about cheering for the underdog especially when they pull out some show-stopper moves like the U.S. did this year. So, I'll keep my baskets intact and say, Good Job team U.S.A., 2014 can't get here fast enough!

*My friend SJ and I decided that the USA should at least get the award for overall best looking team.