In the words of Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso, “Football is life.” Matt (my brother) and I have always enjoyed soccer. We both grew up playing as kids and continued into adulthood. We followed the EPL in the 90s when Man U was the best team by far and even though I’ve parted ways (LFC!), Matt is still a Manchester United supporter. I remember recording all the 1994 World Cup games on VHS and spending the summer watching all of them. Remember when Roberto Baggio missed the PK for Italy in the Finals? I do.
I love watching soccer (especially the Premier League these days) but there are a few aspects I could do without. Diving and the dramatics of getting fouled gets very old very quickly. I really hate watching an entire match and it ending in a 0-0 draw. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back… Our lives have also gotten busier and busier as we started to have kids. Weekends are often filling up family activities and although I’d love to sit around and watch Premier League matches all day, I find myself recording as many matches as possible and watching one or two in the evening.
But I don’t want to watch a bad match, so I often would text Matt and ask him “Is the Liverpool match worth watching?” He’s about the only person in the world I can ask that question of because I don’t want any information about the match. All I want to know is should I use my limited time to watch it. Most people aren’t able to only say yes or no, but instead interject a phrase like “Yes, just stick with it,” or “Best. Goal. Ever.” or “You’ll love that match.” Nope. I don’t want to hear anything. Nothing. Nada. Honestly, the only thing I want to know is does it end in a 0-0 tie? That makes it unwatchable (in my book).
A little over a month ago, Matt said, “I have an idea for an app, and I think you’ll like it!” We’ve been working ever since and are getting closer day by day to having a finished product. You can check out where we currently are in our project at https://matchoracle.com. My next post will tell more about it, but feel free to sign up to receive the app once we publish it.