Here we go.

It's Olympics time. I'm freaking pumped.

So far, we've had the U.S. women lay and egg against Norway and the U.S. men getting what is likely their only points of the tournament with a win over Japan. Brian Freakin' McBride is on this team. Didn't he play in WC '94?!

Marcelo Balboa and JP Dellacamera called the game this morning from the studio in New York while watching on a live feed. Let's just hope they've got a little stronger connection than ESPN did during Euro a couple months ago. It's obvious that they're still in the testing phase with this whole "live studio in Manhattan" : during halftime, some dude in a suit struggled through some highlights of other games without the benefit of a teleprompter or, you know, the NAMES OF ANYONE PLAYING. "Here's a close one. That shot almost went in. *silence* Good first half. No goals yet." Bob Costas, if he could be bothered for criticism at this early hour, would have just shaken his head.

But, while I'm at it, I must say there's something oddly soothing about setting the TV to the NBC Olympic Soccer channel (Cox 706) and just listening to the sounds of the stadium filling up while teams practice. I wondered how they were going to fill 12 hours of programming a day with soccer since there's not games going constantly, and now I get it: just turn on the camera and let it run. So far, I've seen the inside of a Spanish TV announcer's nostrils while he did vocal warmup exercises and heard them play Celine Dion over the loudspeakers at Shanghai Stadium.

*Edit: And now there is angry African chanting going on in the background somewhere very close to the camera. This is awesome.