06/22/06: I watched a number of World Cup games at various places in NYC.

Here's what I observed:

1.) Fans of Team USA were almost invariably supporting England. English fans did not return the favor, and almost to a man, were affirmatively against the US.

2.) Fans of Australia were almost invariably supporting the US. US fans were returning the favor, and almost seemed MORE interested in the Socceroos than the Americans.

3.) There are a lot of Brazil fans in NY -- most of them don't seem to even care to SEE anyone else play, let alone care about the outcome of the games. But, man, female fans of Brazil know how to dress.

4.) Everyone seems to think that the officiating has been terrible, almost across the board. Particularly with the number of cards that have been given.

5.) Most of the people I've met who follow soccer extensively thought that the ESPN commentary teams were not terrible (particularly where they used former players like John Harkes) but that they just didn't sound like they had a lot of experience with actually calling games.

6.) There are WAY more soccer fans in NY than I thought there would be, and sitting and watching just a few games, I met a number of fans supporting a number of different countries. Surprisingly (I'm not 100% sure why I found this surprising), when I went out to watch the opening game, the German fans that were at the bar I chose were exceptionally friendly. They were EXTREMELY fired up about the World Cup. They also told me they had all gone to Niketown and purchased USA jerseys to wear when America was playing, because: they live in New York and wanted to the US to do well. I thought they were kidding, until they showed them to me.

I thought the whole thing has been interesting so far and I've found the games kind of exciting, even though the US played poorly. I've decided to root for Australia and Germany in the next round, because their fans (at least the ones I met) seemed to be mostly likely to be rooting for the US, and it only seems polite to root for them now that the US is out.

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