More than one stadium

 You'll have noticed, if you're following the tournament at all, that most of the US stadiums have another life in the NFL. This is hardly surprising, as none of their dedicated soccer stadiums are big enough for FIFA's requirements so other solutions needed to be found.

It had to be the NFL stadiums. Baseball grounds are too square (technically, too diamond-y) and ice hockey rinks are too small and cold, even for the Scots. There's no point looking at basketball, tennis or lacrosse, all their facilities are the wrong size or shape for our purposes, but the NFL ones are just right. Fortunately it's their off season until the beginning of September, so there is no time pressure on returning them to their normal use. Many of them regularly host Major League Soccer teams anyway, so they're quite used to it.

It's stadiums not stadia, by the way, or at least it normally is. Stadia is the correct plural of stadium in Latin,  but it's also the correct plural of stadion in Greek. A stadion was a unit of length, approximately 200 metres, which was the length of a particular foot race. The next time you see that clip of Usain Bolt winning the 200 metres at the Olympic Stadium in 2012, you might reflect that by winning at that distance he was joining a list of champions with an impressive classical pedigree.

You might also reflect on the tragedy of the Olympic Stadium, an august and imposing structure whose destiny is now tied to that of West Ham United. I said a couple of days ago that the definition of silliness is the incongruous juxtaposition of incompatible elements, and since their relegation you'd have to say that West Ham have become a silly club. Lots of clubs get relegated, but playing Lincoln at that ground is ridiculous.

The NFL stadiums are better able to handle a multidisciplinary approach. Beyond Major League Soccer and college football (that's American football in that context), they'll try their hand at anything they can get their hands on for the long NFL off season. Most of them seem to have hosted WrestleMania at some point, although only Houston has hosted the Houston Livestock Show. Living as I do in Britain's pastoral half I normally expect to be able to look at cows for free, but I guess Texas does these things differently.

Yesterday's best game wasn't at an NFL ground though, it happened at BC Stadium in Vancouver. The stadium is the property of the British Colombia state government (more of that kind of thing please), and hosts mainly soccer.

The game was Egypt against New Zealand, and it was a bigger treat than any of us had expected. New Zealand took an early lead but Egypt came back strongly to win 3-1. Surprisingly, it was their first ever win at the World Cup, which inspired the commentator to say it was a triumph that Egyptians from Cairo to Giza would be celebrating.

He meant well. I think he was trying to say that this was a moment of history for a nation that has continuously existed for millennia. Unfortunately Cairo and Giza border each other, so what he actually said was that it was a triumph that Egyptians from Aswan to Alexandria would remain aloof from, except for a few of them in the middle.

I will help him out. "This was a moment in Egyptian history to rival the consecration of the Great Pyramid, brought to TVs, laptops and phones in every Egyptian village from Port Said to Abu Simnel by twenty first century technology. The team have acquired a hero status to rival that of Rameses the Great, as Egypt moves from its glorious past into a dazzling future". There you go. I bet the Egyptian Tourist Board would have given you a free trip to Luxor if you'd said that.

Let's be honest, we're all basically killing time until England play Ghana tomorrow night. I hope this helped.

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