Copa America | American Fooligan

I know I've been posting a lot of soccer stuff lately but bare with me. There's just a lot going on right now in the soccer world. Besides the U-20 World Cup starting this week in Canada, the Copa America has started in Venezuela. Despite the Copa America being the championship of South America, the US (and Mexico) have been invited to participate. Why? Money. However, it's a good deal for the US team because it's a tough competition and it's one of the most coveted trophies on the planet.

The downside is that, due to back-to-back tournaments with the Gold Cup, the US is sending a B-team to Venezuela. Lots of young and inexperienced players. Who knows? Maybe they'll catch lightning and shock some people. They start play tomorrow against a stacked Argentina team. If they can keep the loss to just a single goal differential, it'll be a great accomplishment. Then they can focus on topping Paraguay on Monday and Colombia on Thursday. The games are on some channel that I don't get but my friend Todd does. So, I'll be camping on his couch for the next week.

Now, regarding the picture of the crazed gringo above. That's the photo of some guy who goes by rks and is posting to his blog called American Fooligan as he follows the US team around Venezuela. He's blogging from his Blackberry so the updates are pretty frequent. Even if you aren't into soccer, it's a good read simply from the travel perspective. He's already been told he's going to die by some lady in a bar.

There's another blog called Previous Projects where the writers claim they are going to start posting from Venezuela during the tournament. However, nothing has shown up yet.