World Cup vs. Olympics

I will be the first to admit that I am not an avid watcher of sports. So far the only things I'll really watch is stuff like the super bowl, NY Yankee baseball, and tennis if its one of the four major tournaments unless I'm going to see it live, oh and X-Games because that shit is just super cool to see. Just this past year I think the Olympics were on for the winter, I can't remember since I had just about zero interest in watching it and neither did a lot of other people. However now that the World Cup is on, people are leaving work and taking really long breaks to watch it. I've seen people with streaming video on their PC's with highlights of the games.

I find this kind of interesting that there is so much more interest in the World Cup than there is for the Olympics. They both have a lot of similarities in my view. They both occur only once every 4 years in a different location around the globe, there are national teams from all over the world competing, but the major difference is that the World Cup is just soccer (or football to all you international people) wheras the Olympics encompasses a lot of sports. World Cup coverage in the US has been pretty good so far with tons of matches being showcased on ESPN and ABC even though the US team is pretty lousy when it comes to soccer on the international stage. Maybe thats part of the appeal, the US isn't a major player in the sport and it gives the rest of the planet a chance to cheer for someone else or see someone else take the crown.........

They do say that soccer is the worlds sport. I know that people all over the world except for the US go crazy for this sport which is probably why attendance is so high at the World Cup compared to the Olympics. Germany has so many stadiums in its country dedicated to soccer that it must be giving the whole country a huge economic boost wheras the Olympics are really centered on just one small location in a country. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the World Cup even though I have to Tivo it. The only World Cup final that I remember is the one in 1998 and that final was kind of dull by ending in a shoot out. I hope that FIFA has changed things around a bit so that the final has to be played out all the way till there is a clear winner, sudden death over time baby!!!!!!!!!