so there are all these tie ins for world cup

and many of us are asking each other
when did this become a thing
are Americans really into world cup

now
one girl I know
she comes by and asks me about world cup
and I'm all like:
I had football and baseball growing up
I don't really know anything about
other sports
I'm really interested in basketball
and women's soccer
I feel the momentum
I know I'd like em
but reading about them
isn't going to work
what I'm really waiting for
is someone to teach me about them

well, I was so stuck in my rut of
when did this become a thing
that I forgot
this girl played soccer
all through school
then coached and reffed kids
she is an angry girl
and the only things that I've ever seen
that made her cheerful
were talking about being in the military
and soccer

she's like:
oh
I'll fucking teach you soccer
proceeds to whip out her phone
find a day we can both watch a game

then later
she pulls out her phone again
I tried to show b and a this earlier
and they just looked at me like I was wasting their break time
and I'm always doing that to her too
because she always wants to tell me
some depressing morbid shit
she saw in the news
but
this time:
ok
this is the last minute of the u.s. women's team
from the last world cup
they got 3 minutes added
because (can't remember the name) was so obviously faking injury, trying to run out the clock

and she shows me
the ball is in play
it goes to this girl on the side
she kicks it
what looks really randomly to me
it flies across the field like magic right into this other girl's head
and then smoothly into the goal
I had just seen it
but
it didn't look possible

then
with the replay
she explains
in a way
that I now understand
there are quadrants of the field
players pretty much always stay in their areas
because of rules, but also because
everyone is pretty specialized
and
you can't be forward of the defenders
and yellow card
can become red card if you are

so
it's not like I understand soccer
but in 15 minutes
she just blew up the nothing I knew
into a context
that I now know enough to ask a question

instead of
when we were trying to find a game
every time she said SPAIN
I said: REAL MADRID?
until
she finally smiled at me
like she was talking to a 3 year old
and said: well, yeah, Real Madrid is FROM SPAIN
and it snapped
no
this is like world baseball classic
or the olympics
the team is comprised of the best PLAYERS
FROM that country
I had thought it was like soccer super bowl

yesterday
some people were asking me:
why does it go on so long
and I was all like:
I think it must be because
since it isn't existing teams with standing records
everyone has to play everyone else
pretty much
it's more like the olympics than the super bowl

and
I haven't felt like that
since I was helping tourist on the tube

and later
it occurred to me
it probably means something to her
not just because she gets to watch soccer with someone who is interested
but
she gets to TEACH ME something
I know nothing about
cause you know
I know everything, right
I don't
but
I come off like that, I guess

I thought
that was pretty exciting

I have hoped
for many years
that you'd teach me basketball
maybe I'll just keep hoping that

happy father's day