Wow, has it been four years already?I’m a little overwhelmed right now, as there are sooo many games to watch. Until the competition starts to really heat up and losers are sent home, there’s almost too much going on.

Thank goodness for DVR, eh?

According to Wikipedia.org, the first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on July 13, 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.

The World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany. 715 million people?? That’s mind- boggling. The current World Cup is being held in South Africa (it started June 11  and will end July 11), and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven national teams have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, the current champions, have won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.

I think it’s time for a USA win.

But… I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Let’s face it, soccer (or “football,” as it’s known everywhere else in the world) is not really a priority here in the United States. Baseball is our favorite spring pastime, American football our fall fav, basketball is another spring fav, but soccer? Meh.

Even with the addition of David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy team (yep, L.A. has a professional soccer team), soccer is not a big priority on the DVR list.

There are a bajillion movies about football, basketball, baseball, hockey, running, and even surfing, but only a handful of movies about soccer. I can only think of three, two of which are British films (Bend It Like Beckham and the original Fever Pitch), and the other is a lame Will Ferrell comedy (Kicking and Screaming).

So until we start straightening out our priorities, a USA World Cup win ain’t gonna happen. Not for lack of trying or heart, though. We did tie England last week, after all. (Thank you, Robert Green.)

Next up for USA, 11:30amPST tomorrow against Slovenia. We’re scheduled to kick their butts. I’ll be at Disneyland, so it’ll be up to y’all to keep me updated.