It must be tough to be Dan Shaughnessy, knowing that all the training and hard work you have put in over the years to become one of the best baseball writers in America is useless now.

To know that the average fan on Hanover Street would make you look as dumb as a crossbar in a discussion of the Italian style of offense. To know that even though you have a prediction box every day, you honestly have no idea who will emerge victorious from the Sweden-Romania match.

So Shaughnessy wimps out. He decides he doesn't like the Cup. It's too slow. There isn't enough scoring. You can't use your hands. The rest of the world can be wrong, if our nation can't beat Romania.

Others say that the Cup isn't exciting enough for American audiences. Maybe so and maybe not. Pick up that remote control and switch away from a Cup game and what do you find? Golf, bowling, and gymnastics. This is a country that tunes in to watch T.V. stars take a whack at an obstacles course. We're clearly not against boredom in our sports.

But anyone who knows anything about soccer can tell you it's not boring. It is the most exciting game in the world. Anyone who has ever felt a goal reverberate through a stadium packed with 60,000 rabid fans screaming and yelling and bugling and chanting can tell you.

There is no longer language necessary, Cantor says it all with a yell. The screams of joy from Italian fans and the groans of agony from Spanish loyalists at the close of Saturday's game needed no translation.

Anyone who has watched the village T.V. with a coat hanger for an antenna. Anyone who has kicked a ball full of rags through the slums of Rio or fallen to neatly manicured German turf in celebration. It is the game and passion of the world. We should count ourselves thankful that it was held here this summer. And we must hope it comes back.

Until then, I'll try to keep my fever under control.