h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm one of those Americans for whom the charm of soccer is mostly lost. I certainly enjoy watching the world cup (although this year I admit that I won't be awake at 4AM to see Turkey play Costa Rica). I remember in '94 when Chicago (my hometown) was hosting a number of qualifying games.

I really, really enjoyed this article. Thank you for writing it, I can tell that it was a major undertaking, even if it was a labor of love. Your efforts havent' gone unnoticed.
I can recite the glories of Baseball, American Basketball and American Football, but international sport (especially World Cup Football) is one in which I am horribly deficient and this article helps a lot. I am slowly learning the histories of many international sporting events and this article makes following the cup much easier.
Good job and thank you.
By the way, I AM rooting for the UK as well as the US this year.
Enjoy the games!
Friar

Thank you, Friar!

I'm really glad that you enjoyed the World Cup Entries. I'm certainly not going to deny that it was quite a major undertaking - I put a lot of hours into it, so it's great to know that my efforts are appreciated. I'm also really glad that I can now look at the excellent FIFA World Cup website for pure pleasure, not just to check facts as I kept doing when I was working on this!

But you're right, it was a labour of love. The way it all happened is actually quite strange. Researcher Mickey Thomas' Right Foot started the project last year. He got as far as setting up pages for all the World Cups and writing the Entries up to and including 1954. He wrote one paragraph of the 1958 Entry - and then his first child was born, and he didn't have much time for h2g2 any more! So the project was left about one-third completed. h2g2 were going to run it as a project on 'The Early Years of the World Cup'. Because I'm known as a bit of a nut, they asked me to sub-edit Bright Blue Shorts' intro piece and MTRF's 1930-1958 Entries. I did that, and wrote most of the '58 Entry - and then got a rush of enthusiasm, and decided that I couldn't bear to leave the job half-done. So I volunteered to write the 1962-98 Entries, and that's why the author credit changes midway through!

Anyway, I'm not complaining. It was a very interesting project to work on. I'm planning to write an Entry in the same style about this current World Cup while it's still going on, and put it through Peer Review when the Cup's over. I am really enjoying the games - and good luck to the USA against South Korea tomorrow. That was a great win against Portugal, and a really exciting match too!