European friends are bewildered that I’m not as excited as they are about the upcoming World Cup. To them, and to soccer (or football) fans world wide, my apologies.

The World Cup brings out the competitiveness in teams, in nations, and in airlines as well, it seems. Case in point: The competition is in Germany, so Germany’s Lufthansa painted soccer balls on the nosecones of 40 of its planes, angering official tournament sponsor Emirates Airlines and the international soccer organization FIFA.

In any case, to explain the lack of general World Cup excitement in the US, with some ha-ha’s, I refer them (and you) to this snippet from the Simpsons, which could serve as a kind of instructional video.

May the best team win…

(image on flickr)