Great Balls of Fire!

 Some many, many years ago, I had chance, and then chances, to sit and spectate soccer matches which were played by very young youngsters in our extended family.  The attention span did not take, for whatever reason.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and I had been invited to watch soccer once again, with new players, roughly the same age as the ones in my past spectating chapter.  Hmm...I have been too ignorant about the sport to really enjoy the sport, still.

A couple of months ago, I mentioned to That Spouse o' Mine that we should embrace the FIFA World Cup competition.  For me, a learning experience.  For him, something to occupy his mind before Le Tour de France.  "We can even subscribe to TV and watch it," I said.  (We don't have TV, per se.)   

And so, we did.  Who knew that s̶o̶c̶c̶e̶r futbol was so interesting and entertaining??  
I did not.  The rules seemed (to me) to mirror Alice in Wonderland's croquet game in terms of rules.  Some of them still are incomprehensible.  Case in point:

Offsides:  I have no clue what the parameters are for this rule.

A handball rule: No clue, no clue at all...

Ball kicking: Four types.  I am clueless.  I hope to attain kicking awareness...  

Goalkeepers:  I think the two goalkeepers in the Sunday World Cup Finals were the Champs!  Absolutely the athletic champs.  There are rules, I guess?  But I just embraced those two guys and their incredible ability to discern and react!  Yahoo!

Well.  If you were hoping for an in-depth analysis of World Cup Futbol on this post, you are perhaps sorely disappointed.  However!  If you, like I, were into the 2026 World Cup Futbol/Soccer month, then you came away this final week with an  appreciation of athleticism mixed with acrobatics.  I'm so glad we watched.