It doesn’t take me much to be fascinated by sport. Admittedly, I’m a borderline perv when it comes to baseball, college basketball, anything fantasy, and come to think of it, just about every major sport out there (except for Hockey). I also happen to closely follow NASCAR, PGA Tour, World Series of Poker, the Tour De France (where my peleton at!), and action sports. I remember one summer (1995) of adolescence being enthralled by Dennis Connor valiant attempt to lead Starts & Stripes past the Kiwi’s in the America’s Cup (that’s a sailing race for everyone other than Ellstien).

My point here being that it’s a no-brainer for me to get all wrapped up in World Cup fever. The World Cup is what the Olympics used to be. An international competition featuring a sport people care about!

I’ve been following the US National Team pretty closely and I’m somewhat literate when it comes to European club soccer but by no means am I an soccer aficionado. I’ve enjoyed the last few World Cups so I want to go into this one as knowledgeable as possible. Some people stress about work or life….I stress about not knowing who is starting in Spain’s midfield.

So I asked the most avid soccer fan I know, my birthright homie Leor Shapiro, if he would take part in the maiden voyage. Leor’s a big sports fan. In fact the first time I ever met him, in the Israeli desert no less, he was wearing a St. John’s hat! He also recently lived in London for the better part of a year and got to experience a season of the Premiere League.

It took awhile to get our rhythm. I had some technical difficulties and the sound quality could be better. At first I was a bit wishy washy but grew more confident as we went on. I would also like it to have been a little more punchier and more of a conversation than an interview. All in all though, I think it was a good first stab (but do recognize there needs to be lots of improvement). When it comes to soccer, Leor knows his stuff (as my dad likes to say). I especially enjoyed Leor’s commentary breaking down the USA team players and their style of play.

If you have a chance, listen here or click on the podcast player at the bottom of this blog post page. If you have any World Cup questions, leave a comment and I’ll try and have Leor respond.

Also, if you are around the next few weeks and want to watch World Cup soccer during the day hit me up. I plan to take a bunch of long lunches at PS450 (below my office) or at Bar 29 (29th and 3rd).

Finally, if you want to understand the culture significance of the game of soccer (which is far and away the most popular global sport) check out the book How Soccer Explains The World by Franklin Foer.