World Cup soccer -- catch the FIFA

A couple of thoughts on World Cup soccer, which is like a drug that I'm kind of hooked on.

Day games. There are three matches a day on ESPN-2, starting at 8:55 a.m. and running til about 5. This is just about the pefect television line-up for someone who works in the middle of the night, so I'm on board. I wish MLB would take a page from the World Cup book and do their playoffs in Germany. That way, I'd be able to stay up past the fourth inning.

Uruguayan officials: You suck. This weekend's U..S-Italy matchup seemed like an exercise in no-touch soccer. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the rules about when a yellow or red card is warranted, but I like to think that the Uruguayan referee totally blew it on the calls that led to the ejections of two U.S. players. I think the U.S. should take it out on Uruguay. But since they haven't fielded a soccer team this year, then it falls to our government to bomb Uruguay. I've already laid out a more compelling case than the run-up to the war in Iraq, so I'm pretty sure we can make this happen.

Special World Cup edition of Separated at Birth. I think England's Frank Lampard looks like Nick Lachey.