Weekend Wake Up: It’s All Just Prelude to USA-England

↵↵I’m going to be honest: I don’t care about Francisco Liriano’s stellar performance on Friday night, the one that helped the Twins to a 2-1 win over the Braves. I’m done caring about Nebraska to the Big Ten and Boise State to the Mountain West; those things are old news, with winners and losers already more or less decided. I certainly don’t really care about the Hawks hiring their own assistant, Larry Drew, and signaling that their participation in the NBA’s summer of spending will likely be about standing pat.↵

↵↵No, today is all about the World Cup, and, with apologies to the South Korean squad that walloped Greece 2-0 and the Argentina-Nigeria tilt that’s about to start, it’s almost entirely about the United States and England.↵

↵↵↵If you’ve ever read a history textbook, you have an inkling about the rivalry on a national level. If you’ve read about the soccer teams’ history recently, you probably know that there’s some bad blood on both sides, the kind that engenders witty diplomatic banter. And if you’ve read about the matchup itself, you know that it will probably be a good, offensive game that might decide who wins the group.↵

↵↵So it’s big, even in the context of the World Cup. And it’s mere hours away. And America is kinda sorta excited about soccer.↵

↵↵I get a kick out of that.↵

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