Local soccer fans in a frenzy over World Cup

ALBANY — Southwest Georgians are probably accustomed to hearing a faint buzzing in the air during the summer months.

Only this year, instead of gnats or mosquitos, it’s vuvuzelas.

Yes, love it or hate it, World Cup fever has spread to this part of the country, and it’s got area fans blasting the loud, monotonous plastic horns through their televisions and into the streets.

“Everybody uses every chance they can get to (watch the World Cup games),” said Bart Sasnett, the Darton College men’s soccer coach who was recruiting at Columbus State University Monday. “Right now I’m at camp, and I’ve got guys texting me, wanting to know what the scores are, which teams are playing and all that.”

Obviously, no team garners more attention than the U.S.A., which has an important game Wednesday against Algeria.

Warren Russ, the Georgia Southwestern men’s soccer coach, is also running summer soccer camps, but said they’ll all take a break Wednesday to watch the match.

“It’s summer time, so (our team) is scattered all over the place,” Russ said. “But I’m pretty sure anyone who can get in front of a TV will be watching.”

Don’t assume area soccer fans are only watching the boys in blue, though.

Darton College has players from South America, Jamaica and other countries, and Georgia Southwestern even has a couple English players.

“They weren’t too happy about (the U.S. World Cup opener against England),” Russ said.

Sasnett said he and his team were in awe at Gonzalo Higuain’s hat trick for Argentina in its 4-1 win against South Korea Thursday.

“It’s amazing,” Sasnett said .”That’s one of the things you hardly ever see in the World Cup. It’s quite an accomplishment.”

While impressed with some of the high-scoring games, Russ said you have to take the opposition into account, such as like Portugal’s 7-0 win Monday against North Korea, the lowest ranked club in the World Cup.

That’s a good way to look at it for the Americans, who have only scored three goals in two games so far. Russ said that said he actually thinks the U.S. has a great shot at getting out of Group C and onto the next round.

“I think they’ve got as good or better chance than anyone in that group,” Russ said. “England and Slovenia will be a very tight contest. (The U.S.) has to be able to beat Algeria, though, and we should.”

And after that?

“We’ll just have to cross our fingers,” Sasnett said. “I don’t know if they’ll get any farther than that.”

Russ and Sasnett both agreed that the U.S. is a good team, but don’t know if it can stand up against powerhouses like Spain, Brazil or Germany.

“You even gotta watch out for the Dutch as a dark horse,” Russ said. “And certainly Argentina.”

All they can do now is wait and watch … and listen.