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Six Reasons you should be Excited about the World Cup

Posted more than a year ago.

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Why You Should Be Pumped for the World Cup

  1. These guys are good – Every four years, the world’s best play on the biggest stage imaginable. This year, they travel to Russia and start playing on June 14. On days where their teams are playing, many of the countries shut down to come together and watch their team play. While our USA team may not be there, that means we can adopt another country and be a fan of a team that has a chance to win the whole tournament this time around.

  2.  It’s a wide-open tournament – The World Cup is always full of surprises. Spain, who were the defending champions in 2014, didn’t even advance out of their group to finish in the top 16. Portugal, with one of the top 3 players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, didn’t finish in the top 16 that year either. There are probably around 10 teams who have a legitimate chance of winning the tournament this year. So if you were tired of watching Cavs vs. Warriors for the 4th year in a row, give the World Cup a try.

  3.  You can root for the little guy – If you like the underdog and want to be entertained, you should root for Iceland. They only have 350,000 people in their entire country, making them the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup. To put that in perspective, that is about 200,000 LESS than the number of people who live in Montgomery County, Texas. And they get to play against Lionel Messi and Argentina in the group stage.

  4. Or you can root for the favorites – If you want to pick one of the favorites to root for, my advice would be to watch Germany, Brazil, Argentina or France. All four have solid teams coming into the World Cup.

  5. The storylines – Every World Cup, there are great storylines to follow. This year, a lot of people will be watching to see if Lionel Messi can win a World Cup to cement his place among the all-time greats. Others may be watching to see if Germany can be the first back-to-back champions since Brazil won back-to-back in 1958 and 1962. There will certainly be other stories that come up during the course of the tournament as well.

  6.  It’s returning the US in 8 years – In 2026, the US will co-host the World Cup along with Canada and Mexico. 60 of the 80 games will be played here. So go ahead and start your path towards soccer fandom now rather than waiting until we host the tournament again!

You can get into the spirit of World Cup Soccer on your own!  The LSC and Recreational Sports are hosting a FIFA 2018 Xbox and PS2 Tournament at 4 p.m. on June 20 in the Kat Klub. Join us for some virtual soccer and compete for an Intramural Championship T-shirt!