Some Final Thoughts

Not to wax poetical, but I think it's incredible what we accomplished this World Cup. On May 5, 2006 I received an email from yatrick.cell@airindia.in confirming that I'd bought a ticket to London for $633.20. I have a vivid memory of Noah, Geoff and me taking a car to JFK, roaming middle-of-nowhere Brooklyn, trying to find the airport, and really just having no idea what we were getting into. We got from one airport to another in London, spent the night on the floor. I filmed for the first time. We got to Dusseldorf, got a car, drove to Gelsenkirchen, found Jeremy on a train, met Tom, and the rest is history. A few weeks later we were at the Ghana game, then we were living together in Bushwick.

At the time, saying we'd get to South Africa was something we all wanted, but it was tough to fathom the actual ability needed to make that happen. Hold down the fast forward button for awhile and you get to today.

There was a moment outside the stadium in Pretoria when I turned Geoff and said something along the lines of "How crazy is it that we're here." Other than beginning college with the goal of ending it four years later, the space between the two World Cups is probably the longest goal-followthrough-completion experience I've ever had.

I'll also add one more thing. 2006 was a novelty. Yes, I mean that for me personally - you all know I'm game to go see a juco college baseball game for no reason other than that it's there. I was a soccer fan and the World Cup was amazing, but I'm not sure that I was going for any reason other than to say I went. But I also mean that it was a novelty for the US. When I told people I went in 2006, people thought it was cool. But it was like going to a Final Four or a Super Bowl. Yes, that would be great, but everyone watched it at home and the atmosphere was pretty much exactly the same as it's been for 20 years. So in 2006, I sort of got a pat-on-the-back, vague oh-I-wish-I-was-there-too response.

But this time I think it's very different. This time people think, "Holy shit, you were there? What was it like?" This time I knew and understood that there is something about the World Cup that doesn't come across on TV - I think Nate put it best when he said, "The most best part... was the people."

Think about going to a Sox game. Do we ever talk to random other Sox fans? Do we care about them? No. Odds are, they are a bunch of massholes and we'd have very little to talk about. But the collective experience of the World Cup - people from all over the world and not from all over the Boston suburbs travel to these games - is incredible. A lot was captured in the lead up to the Ghana game. I talked to German journalist from Cologne. A South Africa guy who explained why there was a stadium in Rustenberg. A bunch of British fans who began the conversation by looking at my head and saying "I'm sorry, what's 1776?" An American fan who may have been on drugs and bought our extra ticket. A South African/Canadian/Red Sox fan who was epileptic and bought our QF tickets. And a British guy in full Monty Python regalia. I mean, shit, where else could any of that happen?

I love the World Cup. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe we have to wait until 2014.

We were there.