I'm a bit suprised

I’ve always said that I like the fact that America is different from “the rest of the world”.  We use “Feet”, they use “Meters”.  We have football, they have soccer.  We have plumbing, etc.

I was admittedly a little disturbed when soccer started catching on.  I had no interest in “meters” or going to the bathroom outside, and certainly didn’t care to see a bunch of grown men running around for 90 minutes trying to put a ball in a net.  My dog can put a ball in a net in about 15 minutes, and he doesn’t use his hands, either.  He doesn’t even have hands.

I was a little upset that after 5 years MLS didn’t vanish into thin air.  Men’s soccer didn’t have the Brandi Chastain/Mia Hamm soft porn factor to keep it afloat (see the SI issue of Brandi, topless, that kept men tuning in on the off chance they might see another girl in a sports bra), but it did have the world cup and international league play.

Ok, fine.  I can grudgingly accept Men’s Professional Soccer.  It’s mostly on the coasts, so I don’t care.  Plus they have teams like “The Whiz” which makes me chuckle every time.

Unfortunately, Houston is also on a coast (not to mention it has significant Hispanic population) and it was inevitable that MLS would come knocking.

Fine.

Another minor league sport relegated to the middle of the sports section with Aeros coverage.  Plus they may help out my beloved Cougars upgrade their stadium.  Bonus.

But now I find myself strangely interested.

Maybe it was all the running with metric measurements (5k, 10k, 30k, etc) that has morphed into some weird interest in something that uses meters.

Maybe it’s the fact that they’ve selected a team name that wasn’t just pandering to a market demographic and was truly traditional.  Maybe it’s selecting a name of local significance.  Maybe it’s just all the publicity that’s catching my eye.

I don’t know.  But right now, this morning, I caught myself thinking “hm, maybe it’d be neat to catch the home opener of the Houston 1836 soccer club”.  I even used the term “Match”.

 

What’s wrong with me?

 

Of course, that might be the only game I ever actually pay to watch.  We shall see.