Soccer in Pasco

I ended up spending my weekend in Pasco with my daughter's youth soccer team which was competing in the state League Placement Tournament. The tournament determines seeding for teams in several state premier and select leagues.

There were 53 girls' teams and a similar number of boys teams there (all at the U14, or 12 to 13-year old range). It was a lot of soccer and there were some very good teams there. Unfortunately, I hurt my back during the weekend and spent my time on the sidelines watching the games from a stooped old man posture. I would've liked to watch a lot of the other teams playing but spent my free time lying flat on my back.

I'm sure there are a lot of great ways to enjoy Pasco and the surrounding Tri-Cities area. This would not be one of them.

And by the way, the drive back reminded me yet again of how many incompetent boobs possess drivers licenses in Washington. It seems that every other car was driving 60 miles an hour (the limit was 70 most of the way) in the left-hand lane. It didn't matter how many "stay right except to pass" signs there were. These numbskull drivers were oblivious to my van approaching them, or my flashing headlights. Slow and steady as she goes.

You can complain about California drivers all you want, but in the Crazy State their drivers understand the concept of maintaining flow of traffic. There, the left lane is truly for the faster cards. Here, we seem to muddle along in our own little cocoon, unaware of the universe of traffic around us, and the social good of letting the faster cars go by, so as to keep traffic flowing.

And then, of course, if you do take the right lane to go around them, they have to speed up. Why is this? Is it some sort of automotive status warfare. I'm the King of the lane? Suffice it to say, I'm not looking back to the drive to and from Pasco this weekend as we return for Round II of the LPTs.

World Cup Begins...2 days

The good news, though is that the World Cup finally gets underway Friday. I've already got the first 10 or 11 matches programmed on the DVR. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to watch them all but I intend to do so.

Wayne Rooney gets his much-anticipated second scan of his broken foot today. The results will tell whether he plays for England or not. I highly doubt he'll be fit, but I hope so. Rooney ranks in the top 3 players on the globe for me, right up there with Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry. It would be a shame to have a WC with a talent as massive as his on the bench.

His importance to the England squad is such that if he plays (and even if cleared today, he wouldn't be able to play in a game until after the group qualifiers), I see England making the quarterfinals, and perhaps lifting the trophy. If he doesn't play, they'll limp out of group play in 2nd place and falter in the 2nd round.

My picks for title success are (in order) Brazil, Germany & Mexico. Of the 3, Mexico has a real dark horse feel for me. They could surprise everyone.