I have a feeling I'm going to get a beatdown for sharing this. I've noticed a strange thing is happening to me lately. The fact that it's strange shouldn't be too surprising considering it's me, but this one is particularly odd considering I've had my whole life to be disinterested, yet now all of a sudden I'm curious about it. I'm actually watching and paying attention to the FIFA World Cup! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
Please understand that I've fought and resisted soccer my whole life - even when I played as a youth like every kid in America did. The World Cup wasn't even really brought to my attention until 1994 when it was played in the U.S. and the Opening Ceremony/Game was at Soldier Field in Chicago. I never got how the entire world can go nuts about this sport. I didn't see the excitement of watching teams like Portugal vs Mexico. Even when I as in Europe during the 1998 World Cup. I was surrounded by World Cup Superfans in a tavern in Florence, Italy. The entire bar was silent until Italy scored a goal and erupted in a chant of "ITALIA! ITALIA! ITALIA!" I still didn't get it...
As I've gotten older now I found myself dramatically softening my position on the World Cup and Soccer in general. It's very similar to my feelings on hockey in that I find that I can appreciate the skill level that's displayed on the field. I also find myself putting aside my prejudices and "who cares" feelings toward the sport and decided to just take it in for what it is. As a result, I find soccer to be much more digestible but I know that most people in America still don't.
I've tried to pinpoint why that is and I've reached a couple of conclusions. One, while playing soccer is very demanding physically, the players certainly don't help themselves with all the flopping they do during a game, and acting like their leg has been severed (some actually tear up on command), but then suddenly pop up like nothing happened. The other conclusion I've reached is that any time I'm watching a soccer match with long time soccer fans, they will put forth some futile effort to try and convince me that these are the "best athlete's in the world" which of course is absolutely ridiculous to the point where I usually break out in laughter in front of these people. So without getting too deep in my observable analysis, it's a safe assumption that both the players and their fans are detrimental to their own cause of getting soccer to become accepted by U.S. audiences.
The irony is, I've picked an awful World Cup to pay attention to this time. We all know about the U.S. Team getting screwed out of a victory against Slovenia. There have been 9 Ties so far. The World Cup workers have been getting paid a quarter of what the South African government said they would be paid thus resulting in protests. Don't let me forget the awful wintry weather conditions that have surrounded most of the games. You have the French team completely melting down, and last but certainly not least the ANNOOOOOOOOOYING VUVUZELAS! Add all that up and overall things have not been as smooth as hoped for.
With all that said however, I think that watching and rooting for Team USA is a good thing, even if you don't like the sport. If you do like the sport, it's fun to root for your country to advance. If you don't like the sport, take solace in the fact that if the US were to ever (god forbid) get to the final or win the World Cup, it would be a giant Middle Finger to the rest of the world because we would win the ultimate title in the "world's sport" and our country's best athletes don't even play soccer.
There I said it...
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