It’s going to be a long, hard summer. The US is done in the World Cup and if the Cubs were an English football team, they’d be ripe for relegation right now. I still have a few days of fleeting shots from Omaha and the College World Series to keep spirits high, but after that it’s just another birthday (no baseball thanks to the All-Star game…again), a dreadful move (because they all are) and wait for those autumn Saturdays to roll around. How did I get here?
It’s pretty simple. The Cubs have the third worst record in the majors and it’s time to start over which only means that it will be at least three summers before they can even talk of contending again. Meanwhile, the US Men’s National Team resembled a Landon Donovan cross throughout the tournament: searching. Even Head Coach Bruce Arena was left looking for a few answers, more excuses and probably another job after he essentially fired himself when he said he “had other options” to consider.
But what can I expect? When my two major rooting interests of the summer are 1) the Cubs winning the World Series, and 2) the US winning the World Cup I shouldn’t be surprised. Farm-raised turkeys have better chances of surviving November. Yet one of them has to happen eventually, right? They can’t both be red, white and eternally blue. Who gets there first? It’s a tricky and barely technical answer.
The Cubs started the season with unrealistic expectations and unrealistic odds. If they could just stay healthy, they might be kinda good. The Cubs were listed at 16-1 to win the World Series at the start of the season, just behind the Mets (15-1) who have the best record in the National League, and have since fallen to 100-1. That’s probably a bargain.
The potential fate of the US men’s soccer team, however, was a bit more problematic to pin down. They were listed everywhere from 32-1 on vegasinsider.com to 100-1 in the FIFA Almanack of World Football, depending mostly upon whether the source was based in America or abroad. (Gotta love that bravado from the American wise guys. Here we’re playing at true odds, there we’re as good as…well…the Cubs.)
The problems plaguing both current teams are easy to document. The Cubs are first in the National League in walks allowed (298) and last in the majors in runs scored (290). It’s tough to win when you cross the plate just about as often as you give a batter a free pass.
The US was just as underwhelming with four shots on goal, the lowest total in the tournament, and bested only Tunisia in terms of total shots, 21 to 19. (But “the Eagles of Carthage” put nearly half of their shots on goal, so even that’s a loss.)I watched all three of the US games in the World Cup, and honestly the best shots I saw came from the ‘A’ in AIG and the pointer for Motel6.com. This doesn’t bode well for US soccer, but it does wonders for capitalism. You have to pick your international battles.
Or do we? In the future, why can’t the Cubs and the US both be the best in world? It’s probably the most feasibly unrealistic proposition in sports. They’re both just good enough to contend, but there is so much history to overcome. Bartman. The Goat. A handball. Shots of Times Square during the game with fewer people than that afternoon’s TRL crowd.
In theory, which is where Cubs fans have been living since 1908 and American soccer recently moved in, both teams have about as good a chance at winning it all. Taking my biggest leap of faith ever thanks to mathematics, we can assume the Cubs have a 30-1 chance to win the World Series in any given year. FIFA currently ranks 205 teams in the world, but if we assume US qualification for future World Cups, the US is a 32-1 shot to take home the trophy every four years.
Now, according to this handy life expectancy calculator from the University of Pennsylvania, I should live to be 78.96 years old, which means that in my life time I should see 1.65 World Cup titles for the US and 1.76 World Series trophies for the Cubs. And that’s with everything being equal, which is never the case except for arguments sake. Factor in some ups and probably more downs, and I’ll forget the fractions and just pencil in one for each. When is it going to happen?
I say they tie in 2026. The US, still looking for its first win on European soil, wins its first World Cup in the newly independent country of Texas behind the sagacity of player-coach Freddy Adu, who wisely subs his 37-year-old legs for Eric Wynalda Jr. A few months later, the Cubs, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Winnie the Pooh with a commemorative patch, beat the Las Vegas Wynns in six games on a walk-off homer by Darren Baker.
As Al Gore correctly predicted, Satan is suddenly cold and I’ve still got 30 years to live.
If not, I’ll just move back to Nebraska, add one more food group to my regular diet and, thanks to Penn, magically extend my life by about four years. That should surely do it.
You want to know the biggest difference between American football and the brand the rest of the world plays? It's simple. A tie is never a satisfactory outcome in the US, and this represents all the results-obsessed, capitalist-driven, need it now labels the rest of the world is always eager to hang on America. Bear Bryant said a tie was like "kissing your sister," but I imagine there are plenty of incestuous smooches in Port-of-Spain right now and I doubt a single person is ashamed.
This weekend marks my first ever as an active viewer of the World Cup. Watching today's Sweden-####mp;T match, it occurred to me that I couldn't recall ever watching an entire half of a World Cup match, let alone the entire thing. I never thought that two hours of scoreless action could be this intense. I sat mesmerized with a voyeur's guilt as Sweden, who had the ball in their half for approximately 88 minutes, sent cross after cross into the box only to be turned away by ####mp;T's back-up keeper. It was sort of like watching a bully big-brother pin his younger brother's arms beneath his knees and chicken-peck little bro's chest for 90 straight minutes. But little brother never gave up and we ended in a tie that was on one end miraculous and on the other catastrophic. A draw....amazing.
But in the one-hour breathers between today's three matches, I decided to do a little reading up on the Cup, and I quickly learned one thing: there seems to be one World Cup blog for every ounce of beer poured in Germany yesterday. With all this information on the world's favorite sporting event in the world's favorite new medium, what's the average, mildly interested sports fan to do?
Well, take it one blog at a time. Here are some of the best:
CNNSI's writers are tackling the event from the bars and pubs throughout America on the World Cup Pub Blog. Generally a pretty interesting read centered around the best way for your average urbanite to experience a taste of the drama currently happening in Germany.
In a weird bit of blog cross-pollination, Sports Illustrated Editor, Richard Deitsch, linked to this blog when he met Steve Jolley at Heidelburg Restaurant in New York on essentially the same assignment. Jolley, a defender for the New York Red Bulls of the MLS, is also covering the Cup from American watering holes but with a more New York-centric focus. The fact that Jolley has literally tackled many of the members of the US National Team adds an additional layer of insight here. Could've done better with the look of the blog, however. I know blogspot has better templates than that.
The Brits have their own cheeky brand of journalism and few fans are as fatalistic and fanatic as England's. A good look at how the hotbed of international soccer reads and watches the tournament.
A chance to experience the Cup much the way the average German will...from afar. Der Spiegel is Europe's largest weekly magazine and one of the most influential publications in the world.
I really like what Fox Sports has done here, giving the regular joe's from the larger blogging community a chance to see their stuff alongisde the pros. FSC has two writers embedded in Germany, Nick Webster and Jamie Trecker, focusing on England and America respectively. I tend to favor Trecker's blog, but either way you have a little Revolutionary War of words going on. (Note: I initially missed Oliver Hinz's blog, but he is also in the Deutschland and posting for FSC. Also, Bobby McMahon is holding down Fort Futbol here in the US. - Ed./Me)
Ok, so this only a post and not a full blog, but if you're interested in World Cup kits this is your source. And if uniform minutiae interest you in general, check out Paul Lukas' blog.
The best of the WC blogs in my opinion. Davies, a British television producer, covered the 2002 World Cup and he's back again with more candid tales from Germany, complete with some amateur photojournalism. Always entertaining, always enjoyable.
I could keep going, but it's like trying to empty the ocean using a pail. That and Argentina and the Ivory Coast are just kicking off. Somebody please help me, I've gone soccer mad.
It’s going to be a long, hard summer. The US 
The potential fate of the US men’s soccer team, however, was a bit more problematic to pin down. They were listed everywhere from 32-1 on 
I say they tie in 2026. The US, still looking for its first win on European soil, wins its first World Cup in the newly 
You want to know the biggest difference between American football and the brand the rest of the world plays? It's simple. A tie is never a satisfactory outcome in the US
In a weird bit of blog cross-pollination, 
Ok, so this only a post and not a full blog, but if you're interested in World Cup kits this is your source. And if uniform minutiae interest you in general, check out Paul Lukas' 
