soccer moms score

I will not pretend to be a soccer expert.


The fact that I cannot bring myself to label the game as football is evidence enough of that.  And, yes, I know the rest of the world has dibs on the football (and its national derivatives) tag.


But my ignorance comes honestly.


Soccer was as foreign to my elementary school years as good cheese.  There were no soccer leagues.  No soccer moms.  No soccer vans.  In fact, there were no soccer balls.  We had never heard of the game.


Little league?  Yup.  Pop Warner football?  You bet.  But no soccer.


I remember a few weeks of kicking around a soccer ball in PE class when I was a sophomore in high school.  I rather liked it.  But no one else played, and my introduction to the game was soon over.


Other than an impromptu game in Greece and several visits to football terraces in England, soccer was never part of my life.


This World Cup has been a bit different for me.  Of course, there is the American team.  But my true loyalties have been with the Mexican team.  Watching them beat the host team during the opening round was exhilarating.  I could almost imagine myself in Melaque loudly rooting them on -- as if they could hear us in South Africa.


That was topped by the game with France.  Cinco de Mayo redux.  The wily French defeated as soundly as if they once again had marched on Puebla.  Great soccer.


And then the not-so-well-executed game with Uruguay yesterday.  A disappointing loss with a somewhat lackluster performance.  The possibility of putting off a match with Argentina was not incentive enough to pull off a victory.


But that is what happened.  Sunday will see Argentina facing Mexico.  Terrible odds for my adopted home.  Don't cry for me, Argentina?  I doubt they will worry about tears.  It will be goals that fill their eyes.


I will try to watch the match at home on my computer.  No television, you know.  Or I may head off to a sports bar for the afternoon.


Who knows?  I may be pleasantly surprised.  After all, I was on Friday and Thursday.