Questions Only Sports Fans Ponder: Which World Cup Game Inspired A Fatal Shooting?

Early Sunday morning in the East Oak Cliff section of Dallas, two men were shot dead and another arrested in an incident that started over a fight about a World Cup game. Unleash the nut graph of pertinent facts:

Any rational person not addled with sports obsession or skewed priorities has nearly all the facts they need. Two men were killed. A thus far unnamed suspect has been arrested, but only after injuring himself in a struggle. A possible motive has been established. We’re good to go, right?

Ah, but the sports fan will not be satisfied until he or she knows which game it was that inspired the fracas. This fact is ultimately and objectively meaningless. Knowing it would not make the shooting any less lamentable or tragic. Nor would it make possible efforts to deter similar incidents from ever happening. It serves nothing than to provide salacious detail to an otherwise sordid affair.

And sure, given the timing and location of the shooting, you could make a reasonable guess as to which game was the subject of intense - and ultimately deadly - debate. Since it was a game yet to be played as of 3 a.m. Sunday, we know it wasn’t about the U.S. team, so unfortunately hackneyed commentators won’t get to muse on how it’s a telling moment about soccer’s newfound stranglehold on the nation’s attention.

The reporter and the cops probably know which game it was. But you don’t. Just know that you aren’t the only crazed sports fan slightly uneasy with the disappointment of not knowing.