Soccer in the USA

When I was in grade school, they taught us soccer and told us it would be the dominant sport in the US by the time we were grownups. Not so fast... I find it to be exceedingly boring and silly to watch, with so little scoring and hours of nothing. I know I'm in the tiny majority worldwide, but so be it. One of our roommates, Frank, is a huge fan. Although he was raised in Queens and looks for all the world like a Queens Italian guy, in fact he was born in Colombia and is pumped these days over the Colombia and US teams. He's flying to Rio next week to see a game ($2000 for one crappy seat) with some of his primos from Bogota. Frank has been sending us some cases, and wants to send more, so Stu asked me to go with him last night to meet at some bar on South Miami Avenue where Frank was watching the US-Ghana match with Frank's wife, his partner San, and San's lady. San is from Iran, and he likes soccer, too. I was reluctant at first, but Stu persuaded me, and we walked over to 10th street to a place called Gazettas. What a scene Brickell had. All of the bars and restaurants were packed -- TVs set up everywhere, and fans going nuts over the boring game. The US scored, and people cheered, well, like the Dolphins had won a Super Bowl, or something. We joined Frank and San, and soon along came Mendy -- an old friend of our other roommie Joel's. Mendy is an orthodox Jew who grew up on Miami Beach -- he loves soccer, too! They asked what I knew about the game, and I replied "Well, the US is Ghana win!" They thought that was funny. After a half, or quarter, or whatever, Stu and I left for a great Italian place in Mary Brickell -- Divino something or other. The food was awesome , and the mood ecstatic. There's a great Irish pub upstairs called Fado, and it was packed with screaming fans. When the game or match or whatever it's called ended, people streamed into the street wrapped in US flags. Who knew? Anyway, the people loved it, even though our mighty country beat a team from a place where, as Stu pointed out, there's probably no running water. I guess the US will lose when they come against teams from real places -- like Brazil, or Argentina, or Barcelona...Ha. I know Barcelone isn't a world cup team --it's a world rugby team...