Sitting in a bar with a frosty pint at 7:30 a.m., you tend to learn a thing or two. The heightened awareness that comes along with rising with the stark morning sun combined with ordering several foreign beers amidst a crowd chanting “U-S-A!, U-S-A!” opens you up to new experiences.

For me, it was the beauty that lies within America’s torrid love affair with soccer. (I’m not sure when we voted on this, but apparently we all decided that we were going to become soccer fans – if only for a month.)

The low-scoring nature of soccer has caused its fans to evolve, to move the goal line, so to speak. Sitting at a sticky counter, elbow to elbow with this guy, I learned that the joy in watching soccer isn’t in the goals, but in the chances your team has to score these evasive goals.

To make life easier, I’ve adopted this philosophy with the San Francisco Giants.

The shortcomings of the Giants offense has been well documented – honestly I’ve seen more scoring take place in line for a Star Wars movie. And the agony the lack of runs cause, seemingly on a night-in-night-out basis (see Dodgers 4, Giants 2), has spoiled too many opportunities to celebrate.

To amend this dire ineptitude of scoring, try this the next time you’re at the yard – third base is the new home.

A base runner that safely advances to third is the baseball equivalent to a “scoring chance” – and the Giants have a lot of these. So the next time you see Giant on third, stand up, cheer, raise your arms in victory, hug the nearest stranger next to you, and blow your Vuvuzelas. Honor the beauty, the physical poetry that is a near-run, and then imagine the bliss of an actual run.

Once we learn to re-frame the archaic goals we have had in place as baseball fans and look to the progressivism of soccer, the pesky runner stranded at third won’t seem like a missed opportunity, but instead it will stand as a time to cheer — at least until the next double play.

My World Cup is half empty – Schuepp’s Scoop

Fixed game in 1982 World Cup creates schedule change – Sports Climax

French World Cup team continues their circus act – Sports Climax

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Yesterday’s 1-1 tie in the FIFA World Cup between the U.S. and England will be perceived in two different ways, depending on what side of the globe you are on. The Brits who went into the contest as heavy favorites will certainly consider this like a loss while America is celebrating the point like it were a victory.

The Group C game started with the field leaning in England’s favor and the Three Lions striking first and early with only four minutes on the clock but the Americans battled back with strong defense and capitalized on a blunder by England’s goalkeeper Robert Green to tie the game at the 40 minute mark.

American, Clint Dempsey directed a routine 25-yard kick towards England’s net and when Green leaned over to scoop it up, he misjudged the roller allowing the ball to bounce off his hands and into the net.

“I really felt for [Green] tonight and I did have mixed emotions when the goal went in,” said U.S, goalkeeper Tim Howard. “It’s never good to see and there’s nothing you can say or do to make him feel better.”

Green was given the nod by coach Fabio Capello to start the match ahead of David James and Joe Hart and now there is speculation the Brits may make a change for their next contest later this week.

The contest was expected my many to be dominated by England but the U.S. hung close statistically throughout the match. When it was in the books the edge in shots was England 18 to U.S. 13 with an edge in possession of 54% to 46%; closer than many expected.

With the game tied late, England came on strong but Howard held his ground, making six saves and shutting down Wayne Rooney and the Three Lions.

After the game, Howard seemed content coming away with the point:

“We’ll take more out of a draw than they will. They’re going to feel like they should have won the game.”

Agreed; the point gives the American team a shot of adrenaline in the arm and boost in confidence that they can advance into the next round.

Back to Dempsey’s goal. With the tally, he becomes the second American to score in two World Cups and his goal is sure to be featured on soccer blooper reels for decades to come.

Howard is looking forward to the next match and may take the time to nurse his ribs that were injured when he took a kick to the chest in the first half.

“The ribs are sore,” said Howard. “I was going to try and give myself another ten minutes and carry on to half-time, but also I didn’t want to be stupid and carry on if I wasn’t fit enough. Sometimes I’m hard-headed that way! But the adrenaline kicked back in, the pain meds kicked in and I got through it. I was glad I [stayed in the game].”

MORE: FIFA.com Game Stats Here.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC