You’d think I had a dream job, producing World Cup segments for World Sport. You’d be right.
What many people don’t understand, however, is that rarely do I get to sit back and enjoy a game live in the stadium. World Sport is the only truly global sports show, and therefore, we’re the only truly global sports crew. While most journalists are there to cover just their country, we’re following any of the 32 teams based on news merit. Attending games is really time-consuming, and unfortunately not very useful from our standpoint. We have video-feed times to meet, features to write, highlights to script.
Wednesday night fun and work went head to head, and nothing was going to keep Pedro Pinto, our anchor of Portuguese birth, and myself, a fine upstanding American, from attending, of course, The Big One.
The hour ride from Seoul to Suwon was laced with many a nervous stab at one another. My “Jeff Agoos with a 38th-minute goal” was swiftly answered with a "in his own net." Actually, that one came true. I soon turned to a defensive mode, in case the worst happened, claiming "Hey, you be Germany, we’ll be Saudi Arabia.” But as much of a mismatch it may have seemed to the outside world, Pedro was never fully confident of victory.
And after the shocking start from the Yanks, he was quite a sight to behold. He was seeing his country live in the World Cup for the first time ever, and before he could even phone his mom, Team USA was up 3-nil. Fully realizing the passion for which we both enjoy soccer, particularly our own country’s brand, this seemed to be doing significant damage to his ability to work.
I was wrong. As much as it hurt Pedro, he was able to turn it off long enough to report on “one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history,” and turn around a wonderful piece on what it could mean to the future of American soccer.
An amazing surprise awaited us at Team USA’s hotel. Just days earlier, Pedro had gone on international television, putting this match into perspective, by saying that the gap was so large between the teams, it would be like the USA dream team playing the Portuguese national team in basketball. In Portugal’s footballing favor, of course.
When the victorious U.S. side got off the team bus, all 23 players saw Pedro, and none of them let him off the hook.
“Dream team, baby," goalkeeper Kasey Keller said with a smile. John O’Brien was shooting mock free throws in the air. Cobi Jones pointed his personal video camera Pedro’s direction, joking “There he is. Look at him now.”
It was all in good fun, and Pedro and I knew it. He took it all in good spirit, mostly because it helped validate what we were doing. People were watching, and responding. In more ways than one, I must be dreaming.
Joe McCurdy,
World Sport
