Why I Love and Hate World Cup Football

Every four years I go all out with World Cup fever, with the merchandise to prove it. I mentioned in a previous post that I love staying up at all hours of the night to watch live matches. And some of them are really worth watching - last night's Netherlands vs Spain match was jaw-dropping.  The World Cup is the biggest party on the planet and of course I don't want to miss out.

There's also the fact that football has the hottest athletes of any sport. Everybody knows that. And I'm not such a pretender that I can't admit that's one of the biggest draws for me.  I mean, just take a look at the sampling below (which does not even include the ENTIRE Spanish team):

Clockwise from Top Left: Ben Foster (ENG)/Telegraph; Alexander Kerzhakov (RUS)/ThePlace2; Xabi Alonso (ESP)/Telegraph; Claudio Marchisio (ITA)/Tumblr.

But is there any way to change the way football is shown on TV? When you're watching on TV, you're basically just seeing 20 tiny people running around. I have this theory that if they showed matches from field-level, you'd get more casual fans hooked. Think about it - with the bird's eye view, you never see the skills of the players in handling the ball, or their speed.  I've seen a couple of live football matches, and the one thing I was surprised to see was the speed and how the game moves. And that was just a college game! It just doesn't translate well on TV.  With basketball and baseball, you get to see the players up close so their skills are really on show. Why can't that happen in football?  They have goal line technology anyway, so surely different camera angles are possible?  Is it a rule that the whole field must be visible at all times?

And can someone explain why the fans NEVER STOP SINGING? They seriously. never. stop. What is up with that? Nothing is more annoying. Just writing about it now is getting me all riled up. Can't we just cheer in bursts like in other sports?


And we could use some lively announcers too. Or are they all required to be monotonous?

So many questions. But it's not like I'll stop watching any time soon. Are you kidding me? I already have plans to stay up/wake up insanely early for England vs Italy. Can't wait.