Personal growth

I am becoming more of a citizen of the world: I just watched and enjoyed a very exciting scoreless tie in a soccer match. Trinidad & Tobago, the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup, took on the prohibitive favorite Sweden in Group B action. The Trinidadian goalkeeper got injured in pregame warm-ups, and so the 37-year-old back-up Shaka Hislop was forced into action. And he played spectacularly. After a scoreless first half, Avery John got sent off with a red card during the first minute of the second half, and so T&T had to play one man short for the final 44 minutes. But they managed to fend off the many advances of the increasingly frustrated Swedes to preserve the draw. It was truly exciting.