World Cup 2010 is in the books. I really have to hand it to myself. I enjoyed this Cup to the max. It took some advance planning and a bit of fortune, but I pulled it off. In case you want to follow my template for 2014, I am openly revealing the keys to my success.
- Start Prepping Early - I really enjoyed the 2006 World Cup, even though I went into it blind. I knew less than a handful of the players, and my knowledge of tactics and teams was equally limited. But the tournament was enough to motivate me to start watching matches and following soccer blogs, which allowed my soccer IQ to blow up. It made pretty much every match of this tournament interesting for me because of the back stories and contextual intrigue.
- Don’t Be a Snob – The downside to embracing the sport is that it opens the door to arrogance. It’s no secret that soccer interest spikes in the US during the World Cup, which can be really fun when embraced. I had a great time going to watch parties, one of which was attended by 10,000 other people. Granted, I plopped myself down right in the middle of the hardcore US soccer junkies who were singing and chanting the whole match. But accepting the fringe interest certainly made for a fun month of soccer parties and conversation.
- Don’t Get Baited into Arguments – With the increase in soccer interest for the month came an increase in vocal haters. I made a decision early on to not engage the haters. It would just be a massive waste of time. Most of the people squawking that mess would not be converted through any kind of discussion, particularly those based on facebook or twitter. Different strokes for different folks. I refused to be drug down into a debate on the relative value of the event because the only result would be the diminishing of my own joy.
- (mostly) Quit Your Day Job – admittedly, this isn’t doable for most people. For the last 7 years I missed my fair share of awesome sporting events. Such is the plight of those in youth ministry. Spring breaks line up with the first week of the NCAA Tournament each year, which meant I always missed my favorite sports binge. Missions trips and retreats took me out of commission for chunks of World Cup 2006. I would suffer no such fate this year. In order to get ready for the big move, I ratcheted my job in KC down to 2 days per week in June. One of those days I worked an afternoon/evening shift, so my schedule was wide open for all kinds of World Cup watching. And did I ever watch. The move did cause me to sit out the quarter finals, but other than that I was locked into watch mode.
Now my biggest problem is World Cup withdrawal. I already miss the din of the vuvuzela and the sweet British musings of Martin Tyler. 2014 can’t come soon enough.
Renew and Restore
