For most of the sporting world, there's no dream like the FIFA World Cup.
Even matches that are blowouts, like Germany's too-awful-to-watch 7-1 thumping of Curacao, draw huge TV and streaming audiences — not to mention that thousands of fans make the trip from — who knows? Antarctica? — and consider the trek money well spent.
Besides enjoying the actual football (that's the proper name almost everywhere on Earth), fans consider the tournament just, well, special.
They meet and greet more strangers than you can count — folks who support neutral teams to others who go nuts as actual rivals — and tell stories until morning.
In fact, THAT outing probably started the previous morning.
Consider: Players, coaches, ushers, photographers, shirt peddlers, shuttle bus drivers ... it's the top of the mountain for everyone.
In 2010, I had to turn down an invitation to cover World Cup games from the sidelines in South Africa.
I was heartbroken and swore that I'd see a Cup in person eventually.
And now it happens.
Today is worth all that wait.
The United States plays Australia in a showdown that very well might decide which of those nations advance to the knockout stage.
Yee-HAH!
THE ODD side of today's excitement is there are plenty of downers to the whole shebang.
I'm not talking about funny little anecdotes or amusing stories that lead up to a match with the Socceroos.
No, I mean genuine unpleasantness that makes you say: "I didn't think it was possible to make the World Cup feel grubby. But it's all of that and more.
"I'll have to keep reminding myself that the match is worth it, that it will be two hours of goosebumps.
"How can you beat that?"
Ummm ...
Keeping politics and self-serving manipulation out of the whole event would be a great start.
Why couldn't we avoid hard-core immigation, for starters?
The Iranians were never going to get shows and music from Disneyland as a welcome, but the United States — in conjunction with FIFA — could have arranged a way for Team Melli (Iran's formal squad name) to set up a workout camp to be used the area for practices, conditioning and team affairs available to other competing teams.
In fact, Iran DOES have a camp for its practice and lodging.
It's in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande River from El Paso at the Marriott.
The optics are strange, to say the least — offering an image that seems to show hard-line immigration folks a view of The Melli being treated poorly — while FIFA and the USA soccer can claim the Iranians have fit right in with the other visiting teams.
MEANWHILE, it's impossible to claim that everyone at the World Cup is getting equal, first-class treatment.
How about chaos involving a referee who didn't even make a call?
Omar Abdulkadir Artan, a 34-year-old-year Somali who voted the best official in Africa, was denied entrance to the United States at Miami airport.
The part of this story that will give you a headache is that FIFA's regulations insist that an applicant must be present in Miami to qualify. However, various paperwork and a complete a vetting process to be eligible.
Of course, Artan was blocked from that part of the path since he was denied entrance to the U.S., with Somalia considered one of 39 countries barred as an outsider among registered officials.
There are plenty more restrictions that have turned up during this event.
The United States is hosting along with Canada and Mexico.
Both of those countries also have had veteran players barred from this World Cup.
