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The big kickoff

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I have spent the past 4 days stuffing my ears with World Cu[p related radio and podcasting; and getting excited beyond description about the feast of football that is about to occur.

So; why do I love it so much?

Well:

1) Quality. As a Villa fan, this is an opportunity for some escapism from the trudgery of normality.
2) Neutrality. I love the World Cup because I watch each game for what it is. I support "football" rather than one side or other. Every good tackle, every wild tackle, the goals, the chances. Everything. Watching football like that is very different from typical club football, where there's long standing rivalries, resentment, jealousy and dislike. Normally speaking I need one team or other to lose in case they rise above Villa.
3) National identities. With club teams now so diverse, the teams lose their identities. We get different flavours of "good" rather than truly different styles. With the national teams this isn't the case. Chile will play football in a fundamentally different way to USA, which will be poles apart from France. It is the clashes of these styles that makes for truly intriguing football.

So - as K.O approaches in Brazil vs Croatia (which I have down as a 3-0 win for the hosts) I am excited. I've watched the people dressed as footballs prancing about in the opening ceremony and am ready for the proper action now.

And well done to the schedulers - for easing us into the tournament with a 9pm kick off. I don't think I'm quite ready for the 11pmers yet; especially after a rather unexpected outbreak of Vodka at work this afternoon! (We launched our website in Russia - so seemed rude not to!)

Enjoy the game.

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