I must confess I have secretly been hoping that England and Germany both make it to the last game of the World Cup, just to watch the madness and marvel at the sheer amount of nationalistic violence large crowds of 'unarmed' people can create with enough beer in their bellies. (Sick, I know, but I have so few hobbies!) Normally, I don't care a whit about soccer ("futbol") or most other spectator sports, but I just had to watch today's match between England and Portugal.

Alas, after today, my hopes are dashed. Portugal beats out England, after two overtime periods, on penalty kicks. Penalty kicks! I can't believe it. And poor David Beckham-- he had to leave just after the first half from injuries, and the poor guy was in tears, because (I guess) he knew that they were evenly matched and that they would go to penalty kicks-- and that the English team would need him to make the one or two points they would need to at least tie Portugal. And that's exactly what happened. Alas for England, the Portugese goalie was too damned good and the Portugese team equally good at making penalty kicks.

To add insult to injury, the French team is going on to the semi-finals!

It's a sad, sad day for England today. My heart goes out to them. What happens if the final match is Germany v. France? Who do you root for? Or do you just pretend it's not there? That'd be the answer: sheer denial.