Now that the United States has moved on to the knockout round, I have one thing to say, GO GHANA!
You might call me any number of things for thinking such a horrid thought, but I have my reasons. Let's investigate, shall we?
First, African teams have always done poorly on the World Cup stage and I want this to be the year that a team can actually make a real go at it. Do I think Ghana will win the World Cup? No, probably not, but they need to start their run somewhere and here it just happens to be against the United States.
Second, we're playing on African turf. Let's hear it for the home team! It makes me sad that (unless a couple miracles happen allowing Ivory Coast to make it through) there will only be one African team that makes it out of the group round. This is the first year ever the host country's team didn't make it out of group play.
Third, we as Americans, could hardly care less about soccer. The only time US soccer matters to anyone in the US is when we're winning. Losing is a part of the game too (and so is a tie if we want to talk about how the US got into the round of sixteen). If the majority of people cared about the game, they would be able to follow its players and story lines without just looking at the letters on the scoreboard to know what matters. If they would watch a match or two more than once every four years, they could see the beauty in the game rather than just looking for another chance to chant, "USA! USA!" We insist that the game is called "soccer" despite the entire globe calling it "football;" it's ignorance on top of apathy. Let a more passionate nation taste victory.
This will be one voice cheering for the Black Stars. GO GHANA!
--from Eric
I agree with you to a certain extent on this one juner. I agree a lot of Americans do not take time to understand the "beauty of the game" because they are so focused on high scoring festivities they watch it for 5 min and then turn it off cause no scoring is going on. If people took the time to understand what is truly going on in soccer/futbol and understand all the technique in the game I think it would help a lot. I agree that it is sad to see only one team from Africa in the round of 16 but doesn't America deserve this one who cares if the whole nation doesn't care, a lot of us do, and this team worked there ass off in that final game to finally win the group after having multiple goals disallowed. I would not consider you a terrorist for having this opinion, but I think we deserve this one as much as Ghana. All I can think back to is in 2002 when the US lost to Germany by one goal when there was a blatant handball in the box. It's our time to have some luck on our side and maybe a little bandwagon will help US soccer in America it is still growing and I think it will continue to grow especially when people take time to understand it instead of thinking soccer is what they played in gym with little nerf balls. Alright I really like your blog and continue to follow it. I would love to hear some comments on this post as well.
ReplyDeleteMike D
haha "ignorance on top of apathy"...well put eric. unfortunately most americans aren't interested in watching "technique" and are much more apt to be interested in "power", "speed", and "showmanship" (sound like american football much??). just as i feel that the nfl needs to accept that the rest of the world is never going to be as big on american football as we are (a super bowl in london??? are you kidding me?!?! joke and half...but anyway), the contingent that is always hoping/wishing/praying that soccer will blow up in the U.S. needs to accept that this is as good as it is going to get. every four years at the world cup, u.s. soccer will gain some steam and add a few bandwagon jumpers until the team is eliminated and that will be that. no finish (besides possibly, and i repeat, POSSIBLY, a championship) is going to catapult soccer into the overall american sports consciousness to stay, that's just how it is.
ReplyDeletebtw, where's the 2010 nba draft coverage??? wesley johnson and martell webster? what a duo! the future of the wolves is here! fml