A great article as you prep for England vs. U.S.A

I usually leave the worldwide aggregating and linking duty to Bruce McGuire and DuNord. How he finds the time to ferret out all those great soccer articles between extensive beard grooming sessions, I’ll never know. Let’s just be thankful and not ask questions.

But I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to Jere Longman’s article this morning in the New York Times, which I read over a wonderful Mexican Zaragoza coffee poured from my French press. Longman's piece is about England’s frothy anticipation of the next World Cup, set against the backdrop of the nation’s quadrennial angst and general indignation over not having won this elusive bugger since 1966. Oh, and there’s some salacious stuff from the recent scandals to boot. Enjoy it, as you remind yourself that the World Cup is a mere 43 days away.

(Oh, Jere ... if you're reading this, I still have your press ticket from the 2006 final in Berlin. You left it behind. Holler if you want it.)