Goddesslike pop or opera star / MON 11-21-22 / Requiring rare knowledge / Musical symbol resembling an ampersand / QB protection squads

Word of the Day:NEALON(62A: Kevin ___, former "Weekend Update" anchor on "S.N.L.") — 

Kevin Nealon (born November 18, 1953) is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, acted in several of the Happy Madison films, played Doug Wilson on the Showtime series Weeds, and provided the voice of the title character, Glenn Martin, on Glenn Martin, DDS. (Wiki)

My thoughts on the puzzle can be summarized easily: Nooooooooooooooooooo! The theme is obviously timely, with the Men’s World Cup starting yesterday and with the U.S. playing today (at 2 p.m. EST), but the execution was disappointing, especially given how much room there was to have fun with this theme! You’ve even got GHANA (48D: Accra's country) already there in the puzzle. They’re in this World Cup and were also in the World Cup in the iconic 2014 group with the U.S., Germany, and Portugal, where the U.S. just made it out of the group before losing in the first elimination game to Belgium when Tim Howard almost saved the whole game by just about standing on his head. I digress. You also have EPIC WIN (26A: Victory of all victories) in the puzzle; how easy would it be to give that a World Cup clue? I can name half a dozen off the top of my head. Maybe put some team nicknames in there (Belgium are the Red Devils, England are the Three Lions, Canada are the Canucks — all of which could be pretty easily clued). Or, talk about some players (more than a few people know Messi, Mbappe, Neymar). 

I know GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL (48A) is fun to say (and sounds even better in Spanish, particularly when announcer Andrés Cantor does his trademark version, which lasts 20 seconds or more and, after a breath, is repeated for even longer). But just throwing a random number of “O’s” in a theme answer (it’s 12; I counted) feels lazy. And using the crosswordese OLE and throwing it in as an across five times feels lazy, too. I do like the word VUVUZELA (17A) and remember seeing those in the World Cup in 2010; I still have nightmares about how obnoxious the sound is and how loud they were. But as a whole, a theme that had so much potential but was boring is as bad as a failed panenka. 

Beyond the theme, the rest of the puzzle didn’t fare a whole lot better, in my opinion. It’s never a good sign when you have to clue your crosswordese off each other like with 27D: Co. honchos as CEOS and 35A: The "E" of 27-Down, for short as EXEC. I also never love clues with quotation marks where it feels like any number of words/phrases could work as the answer, and we had a seemingly uncommonly high number of these in the puzzle today with 2D: "My turn!", 11D: "Unacceptable!", 46D: "___ regret that!", 63D: "___ it on me!", and 15A: "Be quiet!". 

There were still some good spots in the puzzle. 56A: Salsas, e.g. … or salsa moves as DIPS is a cute clue/answer. Same with 71A: What was all about Eve? as EDEN. ESOTERIC (39D: Requiring rare knowledge) is one of my favorite words, so that was nice to see there in the puzzle. I also liked ARCANE (66A: Requiring rare knowledge) and thought EYE CONTACT (30D: Something to maintain during a conversation) was a pretty decent phrase. RUN WILD (9D: Go crazy) is something you don’t usually see in a puzzle, so I, of course, liked that.

Misc.:

• I learned today how to spell VUVUZELA (17A). I was convinced that it was spelled “vuvuzuela,” and that’s how I’ve been pronouncing it, too. 
• With 25D: Latte art medium as FOAM, I remember when I had my first waitressing job and had to learn how to make lattes and the like, because I’m not at all a coffee drinker. The first time someone ordered an Americano, I immediately left the table and Googled what that was. Thankfully, it was quite easy to make. 
• My only experience with the EURAIL (12D: Train service to 33 countries) system was when my sister and I were fortunate enough to take a trip across Europe. We did have one miserable experience trying to get our tickets, and another time we had to sleep outside a train station because we couldn’t get a ticket. But, on the whole, the system was pretty great! 
• If you want to see a true GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL, I’ll share one of the greatest in recent memory. My team (Liverpool) was on the cusp of qualifying for the Champions League and had to win all of our remaining games. We were tied. On the final play of the game, Liverpool had a corner kick. Our goalie — yes, you read that right — came all the way up and scored one of the most beautiful headers ever, and I still don’t think I’ve ever screamed louder. Anyway, here it is so you can all marvel at it, too. (Don’t ask me how many times I’ve watched this clip.)

Signed, Clare Carroll, a USAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSAUSA soccer super fan

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]