So it's the night before, and I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm hoping I can sleep well tonight, because starting tomorrow I'm going to inflict a lot of pain on myself. It's funny, people have one of two reactions when I tell them I'm going to watch every single match live and write about it. Either they think it's a great idea, or they wonder why I'd do that to myself. It does help that most of the people I talk to are also soccer nuts, or I'd have abandoned this as a silly idea. What with a busy week I haven't gotten to do as much research as I'd like, although honestly, most people don't know much about Uruguay other than Diego Forlan. And anyway this is going to be as much, or more, about the experience of /watching/ the entire tournament than just analyzing and previewing and predicting. There's lots of that out there.
But the experience of watching every match, from the marquee matchups to the 'who is on that team again' 4:30 am kickoffs (You know you're up early when coffee shops /aren't/ open yet in Portland.) That's something I haven't seen, or at least, something I think is worth documenting.
The World Cup is the one sporting event where chances are, no matter where two people are from, they can talk about. So many of the legendary stories of the game have come in World Cups, from the ghost of '66 to the Hand of God. Joe Gaetjens in 1950 to Zinedine Zidane imploding four years ago.
So here it is, my document of the entire 2010 World Cup, from the kickoff to the final one month later. Wish me luck.
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