Dude, I was living in Palo Alto when the World Cup came to me. It was fun, but IMO, it's better to go somewhere. In the U.S. in '94, most of the celebration came from the tourists and the locals acted mostly clueless. Granted, soccer interest has changed a lot here since then. but to contrast this with the experience in South Africa this year where all the locals were into whatever teams were left -- there is absolutely no comparison.