Random World Cup notes

I enjoy soccer, and as much as I love baseball, there is nothing quite like the world cup. You find yourself rooting for or against any given country in a game for reasons ranging from the obscure (pulling for Trinidad & Tobago over England and Angola over Portugal for the anti-colonization "fuck you") to plain silly (rooting against Argentina for every person who insists Maradona is better than Pele - at best, Maradona's the third best player in history, enjoying counting how many last names end in "-son" on the Swedish team) to endearing (Ecuador going on to the second round in only their second World Cup - no continent is more difficult to qualify in than South America).

Anyhow, you can expect to see random World Cup notes at this blog over the next few weeks. Having just watched Argentina move on to the second round (unfortunately - my hatred for them runs deep), one can only be amazed by the sheer magnitude of mullets on that team. One stereotype of Latin America is the dominance of the mullet, but really, this is most applicable to Argentina. There are more mullets, from the short (down to bottom of neck) to lengthy (between the shoulderblades) on that team than there probably are in many cities in the US. Watching them play, I find myself in a coif-based "chicken or egg" question, pondering whether women in Argentina love these men b/c of their mullets, or if the men wear the mullets b/c women love them. A friend of mine in Brazil has informed me that, if you see somebody with a mullet in Brazil, they call it "the Argentine."

So, in one of the more absurd blogs here lately, if you would like to see some GREAT (and by great, i mean absurd and numerous) mullets, than catch an Argentina game in the World Cup (and root against them, unless they play England).