Oleeeeee, ole ole oleeeee, oleeee ole!

As I found out tonight, the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place right now in China. As I write this, the USA is beating Nigeria in the 61st minute. It has been a VERY long time since I've watched women's soccer, or soccer in general, and oh how I've missed it. Ooo, the Nigerian keeper just went down! Anyway, Kerry has had to endure me shouting at the TV for the past 30 minutes. Good soccer is so much fun to watch. So much action and excitement! (Even if it's not a high scoring game... *ahem.) The stadium looks so empty, and I wish I could be there to watch. I can pretty clearly remember going to 2003 Women's World Cup games at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. I think the level of play has risen a lot since then. There's something empowering watching women playing such a physically demanding sport. I also enjoy watching the women referees, whom I've noticed are wearing headset, I'm assuming to communicate with one another.

Watching soccer also makes me miss it. I'm not really sure what I miss the most about not playing soccer anymore. There's the game, the comradery among your teammates and (sometimes) the other players, the competitiveness... everything. It really is such a beautiful game with all of the fast-paced strategy and skill. I used to often wonder why my life would have been like if I kept playing club in 7th grade... or if I had worked hard the summer before freshman year to make it onto the varsity team at Tufts. I'd really like to get back into coaching and maybe reffing - AHHH!!! TAKE HER DOWN! DON'T LET HER SHOOT!!! - sorry, I digress, the game almost got tied up. Aaaaand, I just lost my train of thought.

Moral of the story, soccer/futbol rocks.