While watching the biggest game in U.S. soccer history during a Lions Club party at Far Bar (they never let me down because they always let me in) I couldn’t help but wonder what the strange background noise was throughout the broadcast. At first I thought the nice grandma next to me had fainted into her Wasabi Fries, but thanks to Martin Rogers at Yahoo! Sports I now know (psst…you can hear for yourself in Rogers’ article), and dread its upcoming World Cup preponderance:

If you’re still not familiar with the term, the vuvuzela is the instrument that provides that horrendous droning, foghorn-like sound that has assaulted eardrums as a constant accompaniment to coverage of the World Cup warmup event. And you haven’t heard the last of it.

The vuvuzela is seen as an integral part of the soccer-watching experience in South Africa and FIFA has already given the green light to its use in next year’s World Cup finals. That could mean a month’s worth of mind-numbing horn blowing as the musical backdrop to the greatest tournament in soccer.

Something clearly needs to be done — but without offending the South African people or interfering with their proud traditions.

Agreed. Goodness gracious, is this the sound I’m going to have to listen to for the 20-some games I’ll watch next summer? I know it’s a different culture over there and we always need to be respectful of the traditions of others, but oh man, it’s like playing a match in a bee hive. I hope the droves of new viewers in America of the next World Cup aren’t turned away from the sport when they hear it for 3 hours.

Via the Los Angeles Times…

Producing the best soccer it has played in recent memory, the United States men’s national team came within a whisker Sunday of pulling off its second staggering international soccer upset in just five days.

After shutting out Spain, the world’s No. 1-ranked team, 2-0, in midweek, the U.S. was leading Brazil by the same score at halftime in the final of the FIFA Confederations Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Then, the five-time world champions and defending Confederations Cup champions regrouped and came back with a vengeance.

Three goals in the second half, the first scored after a mere 45 seconds, earned Brazil a 3-2 victory as it won the eight-nation tournament for a record third time. The Brazilians also won the event in 1997 and 2005.

Bummer.

- DEADSPIN has pics of Wayne Ellington and his girlfriend (right) as they waited for his name to be called Thursday night. She looks different standing up than she does sitting down.

- THE SPORTZ ASSASSIN lists a few guys that made themselves available for the NBA Draft and probably shouldn’t have.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the details of an awesome prank sprung on some visiting Red Sox fans by a Nationals fan.

- US SOCCER previews tomorrow’s Confederations Cup final between the U.S. and Brazil.

- SLATE wonders why baseball uses an offset, misleading camera angle to show the pitcher and the batter.