World Cup, en Español!

Living in the US and not having cable, I wasn't surprised of the difficulty of watching a live World Cup match. I had the same trouble in 2002. Four years ago, the only matches I could watch were the ones with the US and knockout round games. It was torture for an avid football (that's right yanks, football) fan. Imagine my surprise when I found out I could watch every game in the competition.

But there's a catch: The broadcast is in Spanish.

Univision, a Mexican TV channel, broadcasts live matches of the 2006 World Cup. All of them. Everyday between 6 am to 2 pm. I watched England stuttering win against Paraguay, Czech Republic's 3-0 pummeling of USA, Ronaldo's unwillingness to move, and Oliver Neuville's last gasp winner. In Spanish. I don't habla Español, but really, how much do you really lose from not understanding in-game commentary?

In fact, the Spanish play-by-play spices things up and definitely much better than the dull American commentary. Hell, it made routine plays as exciting as a penalty shootout in a Championship game. And then, there are the goals.

There's the standard minute-long howl:

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool."

Another, new to me, a monotonous repeating broken tape:

"Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol. Gol."

To make things even better, there are also the commercials for Latin soap operas. The soaps themselves are horrible, a melodramatic and over-the-top camp-fest. But what makes them special are the latin girls that star in the soaps: Muy caliente!

My mornings are now dedicated to a new routine. Good thing I'm unemployed.