Croatia in The World Cup
This past weekend Croatian soccer team secured a spot at the next year's World Cup. This came after a 1-0 victory over Sweden in Zagreb. With one more game of qualifications left, we can afford to lose and still be among the two second best teams from Europe, which guarantees direct qualifications to the finals next year. This is Croatia's third World Cup in a row, and we are all hoping for a repeat of stellar performance from the 1998 World Cup. That year we came in third, definitely putting Croatia on the World soccer map.
Now, I have to make a disclaimer. I am actually not a big fan of soccer. In fact, growing up I positively detested it. Sometimes I joke that the number one reason while I came to the US was the fact that it is still the only country in the world that does not care about soccer. Here, you can say that you don't like soccer and you can still have a chance of being considered cool and socially accepted.
So why am I making such a big deal of Croatia's qualifications? First of all, I'll root for Croatia's national team in any sport that it competes in. Croatia's field hockey team competing against Zimbabwe? Go beat them guys! Croatian cricketers losing to Pakistan by 283 to 282? I'll be mad as hell and I'll engage in a lot of counterfactual thinking for weeks to come. If Croatian batter had only hit that last ball ...
Then there is the World Cup itself. It is THE largest sporting event in the World, and it is hard to remain indifferent about it. It brings out the raw emotions like nothing else. I attended one game back in 1994 when Sweden beat Romania in the quarterfinals. The game was played at Stanford Stadium, and I was able to get a ticket for an incredibly low price. For the 2002 World Cup I would stay late, sometimes all night, watching the games with friends and oftentimes engaging in some very un-PC cheering and commenting. Ah, that was a lot of fun. I can't wait for the next year.