I've loved soccer, footall, footy, whatever you want to call it for pretty much my entire life. From my days growing up playing in a YMCA league at Blackburn Park in Dunwoody, to being in Germany and watching one of my heroes (Ecuadorian striker Agustin Delgado) score a near post scorcher against Costa Rica at the 2006 World Cup, to singing the national anthem with pride (as pictured on the right) before Team USA was destroyed by the Czech Republic at the same tournament, it has been a part of my blood. I still remember my first goal like it was yesterday. My older brother Phillip and I were on the same team, and he scored like 40 goals that season; I believe he AVERAGED a hat trick per game... Anyway, he was up to his usual tricks and unloaded a shot from distance at the goalkeeper. On this occasion, the keeper actually got a hand to the ball and was able to knock it down right in front of him. At that moment, I was about a yard away from the ball and time kind of froze. I remember having a split-second glance over at my Dad (who was our coach) and I'll never forget the look on his face. His mouth was gaping open and he looked like he was about to have a stroke. Turning my attention back to the field, I saw that the goalie was stuck to the ground like he was wearing some old school mafia cement shoes. I knew what I had to do. I charged on the ball and unloaded a toe-ball into the upper 90. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!! I had never felt such jubilation in my entire life. It's a little fuzzy as all I can clearly remember is running around like a maniac. My Dad did tell me after the game that I ran up to him and screamed "THIS IS THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!!!" Thus began my love affair with the beautiful game.
Fast forward to four years ago. Thanks to the great strides in technology, and my Apple MobileMe account, myself and my longtime friend from high school Josh Bagriansky were able to channel our love for the world's most popular sport into a podcast. Four years later, Apple has decided that they are no longer in the business of giving their customers a free website (they're too busy giving Dr. Dre $3 billion for some crappy headphones), so we have taken our talents to the Blogger network and YouTube and we are proud to announce the reformation of the Sam Franco World Cup Podcast. We promise to offer some of the finest International football analysis and criticism on the web. For a couple of Yanks, we know our footy, and vow to adhere to the highest standards of covering The Beautiful Game. We will be writing blog posts multiple times per week and probably podcasting once or twice a week during the World Cup. We will also record a preview podcast that will be published on here on June 2nd. We hope that you will give us a read and a listen, because this is our passion project and our goal is to, even if it's only a little bit, share our love of this truly great game with the masses. For now, I leave you with my favorite World Cup memory. It is one that had me balling like a little baby thanks to the poetry of Ian Darke and the wizardry of Landon Donovan:
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