Well, by now if you care (or even if you just frequent ESPN’s website), you know by now. I watched it, as I’ve done all the games for us this time around. I have to say, I’m really proud of this team.

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A lot of people don’t care a lick about soccer. And I can understand that. After all, it’s never been very popular here; we’ve got other major sports to fill all the days in the calendar year, all much more popular than soccer. A lot of people think it’s a boring game (and I’ll admit, I was in this camp for a long time before I saw a few games) because there isn’t a lot of scoring.

That being said, this is the most important sports event in the world. It blows the Super Bowl out of the water. Don’t believe me? Find out just how many people will watch it worldwide. Don’t be surprised if the total’s close to two billion – roughly one-third of the world’s population.

If you just can’t see yourself getting into soccer full-time, that’s okay. Treat it like the Olympics. After all, how often do we watch track and field or gymnastics (Alabama and Georgia college fans notwithstanding) other than every four years? But we’ll cheer the U.S. and its players on like we were foremost experts in whatever the event happens to be.

This team outplayed the three-time champions of the game for most of the game. Even someone like me, who doesn’t understand many of the nuances of the game could see that. We like the underdog here, even if we don’t get a chance to be it very often as far as sporting events are concerned. After all, this country was founded by some of the biggest underdogs.

My point is, when the tournament comes around again in 2006 (and in a little bit better of a timeslot for us, considering it’ll be in Germany this time instead of Asia), at least tune it in for a little while. I bet you’ll find yourself cheering the team on. And who knows? You may actually get to like the game.
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You can have your NBA playoffs. Give me a league where they’ll take government action!

But our men’s basketball team is #5 in the country…our gymnastics team is top 5…and our men’s track and field team is #1!

…or were the Super Bowl commercials last night actually worse than the game for once?

Side note: forget Tom Brady. Adam Vinatieri is the man.

I went home this past weekend, to see my parents, but also just to get out of the house. I’ve been inflicted with a case of cabin fever recently.

Of course, like all other times I went home, we played golf. Saturday, I played with five men: my father, two uncles, and two friends of theirs. Each one could drive a ball over 270 yards easily. My dad said to me as we drove up to the first tee, “I’m the worst of the five of us, by far.” My dad has shot 90 before.

Needless to say, this was just a smidge intimidating.

So as we finished up with the first hole (which I thankfully didn’t embarrass myself on), it was decided that we’d play a scramble because playing with six can be pretty slow as it is, and I might just hold us up even more.

We approached the second hole, and I was just hoping that I’d be able to do something for the team and not slow us down to a crawl. The second hole is a par-3, 162 yards. I had never put the ball on the green from the tee before in all the times I’d played it. I pulled out my 5-iron and hoped for the best. “All right, Brandon. Same downward swing angle as upswing…clip the tee.” Whack.

The ball flew in a beautiful arc and came to a stop 20 feet from the hole.

One of my uncles, who on the previous day shot 79 after not having played in weeks, shouted out, “That’s my partner!”

I definitely played better than I ever have before, which was nice. I’ve discovered golf’s a lot more enjoyable when you hit fairways and greens. 🙂 After we played the 18-hole scramble, my dad and a friend and I played another nine holes, where I shot 55 playing my own ball. That’s five strokes better than I’d ever done before over nine holes.

So maybe I’ll never be Phil Mickleson, but maybe I’ll reach that 90 over a full round one day.

Glad that we got the win, but man, that was some nasty weather. I think that it’s in the worst three games weather-wise that I’ve ever witnessed. First all-time was, and probably will always be, my sophomore year in high school when we played Central of Phenix City. It was about 25 degrees, and it rained the entire night. Hard. I didn’t have any rain protection other than my football uniform. I’m amazed that I didn’t get pneumonia. And to top it off, we lost the game 6-0 to the eventual state champs.

Still, at least one game for every team every year should be played in the rain. Not necessarily a cold rain, but a rain nonetheless. It’s football weather, baby!

Didn’t see any of my friends there at the game. I took a few looks at the student section, and never saw anyone stand out. Did anyone actually go?

To Sis: I know that this is probably not the case, but I swear that I saw Todd Whitcomb at this game. He passed right in front of me about a half-hour before the game started. I didn’t want to say anything in case it wasn’t him, but if it wasn’t, his twin was there.

So now we’re bowl-eligible. Seeing as I’ve never been to a bowl game, I told myself that if we did make it to a bowl, that I was going to do everything I could to find a ticket to it. I hope we go to Nashville. It’d be a relatively easy trip. Although if we went to the Tangerine Bowl, I could stay with Sis and Mike…