I never thought I would say this, but thank God for Univision!
Ever since I’ve upgraded from an analog to a digital signal, I’ve always grumbled about the large number of Spanish-speaking channels. Well, I don’t understand Spanish, so these networks are completely useless to me. Moreover, whenever I manage to catch these channels (very popular in the Laundromat) it always seems like some impossibly gorgeous woman is shrieking and trying to bitch-slap another impossibly gorgeous woman.
Anyway, today is the opening day of the 2010 World Cup, which pretty much stops life everywhere except in the US of A. I don’t know why “soccer” hasn’t caught on in the US (I am careful to say “football” in the presence of my European and African colleagues and students). I mean, it’s 90 minutes of gorgeous men running around in shorts! Really? Do we need any other explanation? And since football is not as popular here as that other football, television coverage is not that great. The ABC network is only showing 10 games. Ten!!! I don’t have cable, but then, ESPN is not broadcasting the complete set of games either. Unbelievable. Or maybe not. I guess it’s because nobody cares about the American team (with the possible exception of their grandmothers, and even they have bingo games that are more important). Please dispatch them as quickly as possible. Can you tell I am rooting for England tomorrow? (Though, I’m hoping for a Brazil/Spain final.)
Then I remembered that one of my Bulgarian buddies (thanks Plamen!) told me that some of the free-to-air Spanish language channels broadcasted pretty much the entirety of the tournament. A search on Google told me all I needed to know. Univision, Channel 41.
So here I am, happily enjoying the France/Uruguay game. No one’s scored yet and France keeps getting into trouble (three yellow cards and counting, and Toulalan is now fighting with the referee). I love it when their tempers get the better of them (anyone remember the last World Cup final? Poor Zinedine Zidane.) I still can’t understand the Spanish commentary, but I have FIFA.com’s play-by-play on my laptop so that I can understand what’s going on. Not that I need all the technical details. As long as the ball goes into the net, we can all stand up and yell “GOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!!!” In addition, the website has players’ profiles ready, which makes it easy to find the answer to questions like “Who is the yummy French guy who wears the number 8?” (That would be Yoann Gourcuff, midfielder.)
Few more minutes. Time for me to shut up and concentrate on the game.
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