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.

Best. Night. Ever.

Exhibit A: Front row seats.  Seriously, front row.  Okay, we were also RIGHT next to Mark Sweet, the not-very-funny warm-up guy.  So that was kind of annoying, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  And we were so close to all the action, that it was easy to distract ourselves with what was happening on the floor.  All in all, GREAT seats.

Exhibit B: Wil Wheaton.  Yes, the Wil Wheaton, he of and Star Trek: The Next Generation and Stand By Me.  I’m sure he’s been in other stuff (indeed, his IMDb.com profile says he has), but that’s all I’ve seen him in.  All he needed to do was Star Trek.

I grew up with a special Saturday night tradition: Dad’s grilled hamburgers for dinner and a new episode of Star Trek: TNG.  Every Saturday night, burgers and Star Trek. Saturday = Star burgers.  To this day, I still find myself hankering for a good, juicy burger on Saturday nights.

And Star Trek. There is a special place in my heart for all the series of Star Trek (Star Trek: Voyager is my #2 – especially with two cast members currently working on the lot as producers/directors of two of our shows), but Next Gen is definitely my favorite.  I watched little Wesley Crusher grow up on that show, and I had a crush on him pretty much the entire run of the series.

So to see him in person?  Acting in one of my favorite tv shows?  I HAD to see this.

Exhibit C: Bill Prady.  Bill is an executive producer and writer for the show.  He is my Facebook friend.  We’ve met a handful of times over the past two years, but we’re not exactly close.  No one’s fault, we’re just both really busy. 

Anyway, I begged, pleaded, cried for tickets to last night’s taping (I’d been reading Wil’s blog and his experiences on set made me want to go even more), and Bill came through.  I asked sooooo last minute, they’ve been sold out for months and I knew odds were really slim for getting a ticket so late, let alone three tickets.

But Bill pulled some strings (or threatened someone, I’m not sure) and he made it happen.  He’s definitely my hero of the month (and a certain nominee for hero of the year).  Thanks, Bill!

***

So there.  Wasn’t that just a great evening?  And the frosting on the delectable cake of my evening was spending a couple hours with my dear friend Christa while she finished her shift at work.  I miss seeing that girl every day!