Ronaldinho!!!!!!!

The picture above is from the display window at the Adidas store in Barcelona, Spain. World Cup fever has taken over Europe far more than in the US, and it's hard to not get at least a little caught up in it. The scores for the games were filled in daily, so even if you weren't watching the games you couldn't help but to be aware of what was going on. Small crowds would occasionally gather as well, discussing the games, and only rarely mentioning the shoes. On the whole, it was not only an appropriate piece of marketing, but an engaging one as well.

Upon returning, spanning_time has had a few invitations to watch games around town, so the real point of this post is to remind you that the World Cup is going on, and that you should make a point to catch some portion of a game in the proper setting, that of being surrounded by rowdy football fans. It's not really an American pastime, but when done right, it's entertaining all the same.