The France Uruguay game was a real show and I loved watching. AS to the "acting"......That end of Soccer is not lost on American kids at all and I just had a "conversation" with my nephew about it. He plays U-14 and is one hell of a defensive player. At the end of their last game before the championship match, they were up by one goal (1-0) and David took a hard hit. Both boys were down for a bit and David stayed down for a bit longer before moving slowly off the field with the coach. This ate up about three minutes and when play resumed there was less than two minutes left. David seemed to make a miraculous recovery on the sideline......The other team never got a good chance again and the game ended 1-0. David seemed just fine and I asked him if he was hurting at all. He said the hit had winded him and then when I asked point blank, he said that most of it was just killing time because the end was close! The ref could have but didn't stop the clock and David was well aware of about how much time that would take before they did and he called it pretty well.

Uncle Pat gave the lad a lecture about sportsmanship and all of that and he pointed out that it happens in pro Soccer. I still maintained it wasn't cool and then last night, since we get ESPN and they don't he spent the night to watch the games and lo and behold.............

AS someone said, basketball is still the pickup game but the most played game as an organized team sport for American kids between 6 and 18 is now Soccer. I swear to you folks that don't believe me, the game is huge here now and when these kids become the new players and fans, it will be monstrous, TV or no...and I'm sure the TV folks will figure it out as they have in the WC with uninterrupted, commercial free halves. It's been growing like mad for the past ten years and the last five years it has really taken off.

This WC will not "perhaps kindle an interest." This thing is already a full grown blaze here and the WC will add some fuel, but believe me, it doesn't need much fuel at all!!! A Columbus suburb just built new athletic fields and there are only two ball diamonds. There is one practice American football field (main field is at the high school). But there are FOURTEEN Soccer fields! Watch for us down the road folks..........

Spaw