don't worry, I'm a professional.

At least that's what I pretend when it's soccer tournament time.

As I admitted yesterday, 4 years ago I knew next to nothing about the game of Soccer. In that first summer, though, I learned quite a bit after watching 3 solid weeks of match after match after match. I even managed to win the favor of most of my students last year when I could correctly define offsides. 

but let's be honest, I still don't really know all that much. I watch it for 3 weeks every other year (world cup and euro cup, people!). 

I don't know anything about the players in the regular season, yet I still yell "SCHWEINIIIIIII!!" with the best of them. I couldn't tell you who plays for which club regularly, but I can name almost every player + position on the German national team (and I don't even know what the positions really mean...).

During Euro Cup/World Cup season, I'm probably on the UEFA home page just as often as Facebook, checking the stats, ready to debate each possible outcome of the group points and remind you that Germany was the only team to finish the group round with 9 points (meaning they won all of their games) this year. 

And when the rest of Germany watched this adorable scene of the German coach during the match against the Netherlands, I was there with them sighing "ach, der Jogi!"

Here's the thing. I pretend to know a lot more than I actually do about soccer. But for 3 weeks every other year, I can carry on a pretty convincing conversation!