The 2010 World Cup is right around the corner and even though four years ago a few colleagues and I made a PACT to travel to South Africa right after the 2006 Cup, all plans in doing so somehow dissipated.   I’m not the football fan I once was when I used to wake up early as crap on a Sunday morning to drive to Pasadena to catch a RED DEVILS match, but I do enjoy watching here and there.  I’m already too preoccupied with my fanaticism with other sports like SLAMBALL, and MONSTER JAM.

I’m more of the soccer movie fanatic if anything else.  You know like SHAOLIN SOCCER, GOAL, RUDO Y CURSI, and a very underrated film my good friend Matt introduced me to: THE BIG GREEN.  Usually I will just pop in one of these entertaining films get my soccer/football fix.

The movie below is not quite the World Cup, but a World Cup qualifier.  I happened to be in Buenos Aires during the South American qualifiers and Argentina was in a really bad spot.  Just like some of the usually dominant European countries that found themselves in the same position, Argentina was a game away from not qualifying for the 2010 Cup if they lost to Peru.  Our hotel gave us a horrible deal on a pair of tickets so we decided to go last minute.

The game was pretty nutty.  I’ve never been to a sporting event where people jump and chant, especially coming from LA where the crowds are pretty glum so this was refreshing.  What was even more refreshing was the torrential rain that dumped on us during the last minutes of the match.  Nobody would have guessed that it would rain that hard with the skies so clear earlier that day.  I just have to hand it to my woman for braving the storm with me.  She somehow only ends up in situations like this with me.  And another thing, there’s a guy in the video sitting right next to me with a rattail/mullet.  His name is Joshua and he’s from Echo Park.  Also pretty nutty.