So This is Withdrawal

Well, it had to come to an end eventually. For some unknown reason, the World Cup is not able to go on forever, and is all said and done in one month. I guess in the grand scheme of things it's probably a good thing the World Cup is only one month long. For the last month I have breathed, slept, ate, dreamt, and lived the World Cup. I would spend my whole day at work avoiding human contact as well as internet and media contact to avoid hearing the scores of the games so I could rush home after work and watch the 3 games of the day. That takes its toll on a person day after day, week after week. Kind of a strange thing to have to scamper out of a room or cut off conversations with people for fear of some hint of a soccer score being overheard. Now I will say, for the most part I was successful. It took a lot of work and diligence, but I was often able to make it home after a long day of work, sit down in front of the TV, and turn on the games without having any idea what took place earlier in the day.

So, now that it's all over life can get back to normal. It's been a good ride; there has been a lot of drama, controversy, and great football action. Maybe later on there will be some more analysis coming from me but right now I'm still processing what has gone on in the last month. One thing I know for sure, the final game between Spain and The Netherlands left something to be desired. It was a scrappy, cautious, physical game that saw more of ref Howard Webb reaching into his pocket for yellow cards than well-played offensive football. There were a lot of harsh tackles, a lot of acting and diving, and just overall not a lot of free-flowing football. Don't get me wrong, Spain played well and deserved to win, it just wasn't the entertaining game that we all were hoping for .

The fact that in the last week of the tournament and the week after, the bigger news story was Paul the Octopus and his predictions and not what was actually happening on the pitch is an indication of either A)how much North America doesn't really care about football, or B) how uninteresting some of the action was. Probably more so the former, but both are pretty accurate I'd say. Don't forget though, the octopus was a perfect 8 for 8 in his predictions so he's no slouch. If any of us were even 4 out of 8 in those same games, I would be surprised.

The other bit of business I need to cover here is the status of the World Cup beard, or almost-beard. It is now a thing of the past as of Tuesday morning. It was good while it lasted but definitely nice to get rid of  it and get back to a more normal face. You might remember that I had made a bet with a friend when the tournament started that if an African team made it to the final game there would be a facial hair surprise for you. Well, Ghana made a good run but came up just short. Therefore, the facial hair surprise never came to fruition. What you would have seen is Brad making a fool of himself and sporting a handlebar mustache for at least one day in public. Yup, I dodged a bullet there for sure. I do want you to see the finished product before I shaved it all off so here you go. And if this hasn't inspired the guys out there to grow a beard for no apparent reason, then I don't know what will. Wow it's annoying to have my tongue embedded in my cheek like that.