3 minutes left in the game. (Germany still leads 1-0.)
7 minutes left till summer.

If there were no stoppage time, the second half of the U.S.-Germany game would end at 9:17 AM Eastern time — seven minutes before the summer solstice hits at 9:24. So, unless we have an injury-plagued or penalty-filled half, the game will probably end during the spring… unless it goes to overtime. But perhaps the United States will pull the comeback, win it in overtime, and become the “boys of summer.”

As I post this message, Germany leads 1-0 at 52:45.

…but the real drama is yet to come. Can America stun Germany? I don’t know anything about soccer, so I’m not going to make a prediction, but I will gladly state my loyalties for the record…
U S A ! !  U S A ! !

In other news, I switched web hosting companies. I’m still going to have BrendanLoy.com, but it’ll be hosted by WorldWebHosters instead of 5GBHosting. The basic facts are the same, however: I’ll still have 1 gigabyte of space for $35 a year. So stay tuned!

Oh, and summer officially begins in less than four hours, at 9:24 AM. Will the U.S.-Germany game be the first World Cup game ever to be played during two seasons?

If you were a sports editor for a major newspaper, how would you prioritize today’s stories? What would your layout look like? Which would you pick as the top story?

Okay, so the Hartford Whalers don’t exist anymore, and Dominek Hasek doesn’t play for the Buffalo Sabres anymore. But still, the Stanley Cup finals between the Former Whalers (Carolina) and the Former Sabre Star’s New Team (Detroit) is sort of a proxy battle between my home city, Hartford, and Becky’s home city, Buffalo.

And after watching Hasek give up the game-winner in overtime to former Hartford star Ronnie Francis, all I can say is: Take that, Buffalo!

Click here to watch the TV broadcast. (Unfortunately, because NBC took over from ABC last year, there is no more “and DOWN the stretch they come!” in the call. Sorry.)