Soccer Fever?

I have to admit that I don't understand World Cup fever. I mean... I understand it for other parts of the world. I just don't understand it for places like Minnesota.

Soccer is not a big deal in Minnesota. Honestly, as many of you know, soccer is not a big deal in most of the United States. I mean... once little kids get done playing it in grade school and junior high, that's often the last we hear about it.

Even in LA, where the population is largely non-white, it took bringing David Beckham out of retirement from England to get the LA team any news. And, honestly, all I know about that is that Beckham showed up. I don't remember hearing anything about how their matches went beyond that.

So, here in a part of the country where winters are long enough to play outdoor hockey 8 months of the year (or at least it seems that way), and where football (the American kind) is so big that even rugby (much closer to American football than soccer) can't get a foothold, it's weird to see so many people suddenly excited about soccer games taking place on another continent.

It's a little like the news story I heard this weekend about people being cautioned about contracting Dengue fever from mosquitos while in Brazil and bringing it back with them. My guess is that, once the fever is diagnosed, it will fade away and become just one more "remember when?" summer story to tell.