Goooooaaaaaaalllllll................

Just about any sports fan even with the most modest of interest in world wide sports knows that the World Cup will be in Brasil in 2014.  (I've mentioned in the past that they don't spell it Brazil in Brasil).  There are two soccer (football) tournaments going on in South America right now.  One is the Copa Sudamericana, which is the second largest football tournament in South America.   The Universidad de Chile team (University of Chile) - known as La U - is one of two Chilean teams still in the Copa Sudamericana. La U is not really a university team, though it has historical roots to La U (The U - the first university in Chile). The other tournament is the World Cup qualifier.

I was in Europe during the 2010 World Cup, finding myself in The Netherlands and Germany when both were in the Final Four.  I was also in Europe during the 2012 European Cup.  Soccer is so much bigger in Europe and South America than any sport is in the US.  It is hard to describe how pubs and restaurants have tables and chairs that spill out into the streets and a few hundred people can be watching the game on a television outside in this type of setting.  When a goal is scored by "the right" team the sounds throughout the city confirm it.

Last night Chile played Venezuela in the World Cup qualifier.  We knew when goals were scored from within our apartment - didn't even need to have the game on.  Chile won 3 - 0, and is now guaranteed at least a playoff into the World Cup with more games remaining to guarantee the spot.  Once the game finished it was a scene much like what plays out in Europe.

People jump into their cars and start driving around honking their horns and waving flags.  There were busses with flags draped across the front and down the sides, people hanging out of side car windows, and kids younger than five standing up through sunroof's waving flags.  We even saw people several stories up waving large flags out their windows.  It is really quite an experience and certainly overshadows the petty rivalries we see so often in sports in the US.

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