Early this month, I’m waiting for the Yankees game to start. They’re playing the Orioles on a Saturday afternoon.
Like any impatient American, the clicker gets busy looking for something, anything to fill the void when I hit Channel 4 and the Premiere League is on. Soccer?
Sorry, futbol.
Oh yeah, the World Cup starts on June 11. My youngest Jalen played high school and travel soccer years ago and I enjoyed watching and cheering. With only 45 minutes to kill until Yankees’ first pitch, why not?
Do I know soccer like I know baseball, basketball, or boxing?
No.
Then this lightning-quick player breaks his defender’s ankles, better than Allen Iverson, and as he folds onto the turf, the 24-year old Brit slithers a low pass to teammate Viktor Gyokeres, a member of the Swedish National team, who scores in the ninth minute.
Arsenal is up one nothing — sorry, one-nil — over Fulham. Who is this quick guy?
The announcers call him Saka. Bukayo Saka, from Greater London, but they kept calling him by one name: Saka.
Still in the first half while his teammate has the ball, Saka, whose parents emigrated to London from Nigeria, mirrors his man so as not to become offside. His teammate waits for Saka, who’s captaining the squad, to make a move. He delivers the ball to him, who drills a low left footer for the two-nil lead at the 40th minute.
The Gunners would win 3-0.
And just like that, Saka, one of the world’s best wingers, sits the second half with a big League game upcoming. He’s rested coming off a month-long absence due to a nagging Achilles injury.
I’m not saying that Saka is the man to watch for the upcoming World Cup, but this is just to let the non-soccer fans know to give the games a look.
Forget the fact that the World Cup will suck the financial life out of you with outrageous ticket prices and if heading to MetLife Stadium, you will have to shell out some serious coin just to ride the train to the game.
As the Brits would say, “Bloody Hell!”
Just sit back and do what we always do. Turn on the telly and watch the games.
We are New Yorkers and if we don’t know the sport, we do know talent, style and arrogance. And who’s more arrogant than professional soccer players? And who else but soccer players could win multiple Academy Awards in the category of Best Flopper.
But back to the game where Saka is a member of the British National team for the upcoming World Cup, along with a talented game changer in Harry Kane.
Nicknamed “Little Chilly” and “Starboy,” Saka possesses a Tyrese Maxey-like smile to go along with deadly Iverson-esque moves. He started his pro career at the age of 17 for Arsenal’s U23 team. Then around the 80th minute the Arsenal coach makes a sub and the home crowd of over 60,000 goes nuts.
In comes another speedster by the name of Max Dowman. He is the team’s future at age 16. He is the youngest goal scorer in Premier League history. Dowman played for Arsenal’s U18s when he was … 13.
After Arsenal’s win, the crowd in full throat sang in unison much like Yankee fans joining Frank Sinatra in “New York, New York” after a win.
By the way, the Bronx Bombers were up one-nil — sorry 1-0 — in the bottom of the third when I went back to the YES Network. The Yanks would go on to win 9-4 behind Cody Bellinger’s two-homer, four-hit day.
So, try a different sport. Look for names like Messi (Argentina), Ronaldo (Portugal), Mbappe (France), Pulisic (USA) and Saka and enjoy the World Cup and cheer for soccer.
Sorry, futbol.