Every four years, the most popular sporting event in the world crowns a World Champion. To most of my fellow readers, whom are American, this would be Soccer, and the World Cup. To everyone else, it is football. 32 teams, representing 6 continents (I wish I could say Antarctica had a team!,) gather in one host country to not only play it out on the pitch, but celebrate what many (myself included) call the World’s game.
As I write this, there are only two more games left in the 2010 South African edition, the 3rd place (go Germany), and 1st place games (go Netherlands), respectively. Being a PCV, I feel privileged to get a unique perspective on Football by living outside the good ol’ US. In fact, this is my second World Cup in coherent memory (1998 France) that I experienced the World Cup outside of the homeland. These experiences have shaped how I look at the sport, and I hope that every 4 years I am able to experience the World Cup outside the US (with the exception of celebrating US victory with my fellow Americans.)
Being in Morocco, I technically am in Africa (North Africa is a different animal though.) I was able to watch numerous games, probably about half of all matches. I scheduled my day around games, I scheduled meals as well as travel. I scheduled work (both job and home) around the games. Call me a nut…call me crazy, I dont care. I love this game, more now than ever, and hopefully in the rest of this entry, you (my lovely readers) will understand why!
As I said, I am in Africa. Morocco did not qualify (not even close!) for the World Cup this year. They played crap football, and can’t seem to get their act together. I rooted them on though, to no avail. So this made me curious as to which team my fellow Moroccans were following and cheering on. Their answer… Algeria. This might not mean much to you, but currently, Morocco and Algeria do not entirely get along. The border is closed, and has been for 20 years. There are border/land disputes in the eastern and southern borders, and there are other allegations, that I do not wish to discuss (do the research yourself please!)
So why Algeria?!?!? Because they are African, because they share a common heritage (Amazigh and Arabic), and had it not been for the French occupation/colonization, there probably would be no border to dispute anyway (but multiple tribal borders. So Algeria was team #1 for the Moroccans.
In addition, Morocco, being in Africa, supported EVERY African team playing. Home continent, root for the African nations. It was fantastic to witness. Cafes full of men (very few women) yelling and howling at the TV when the African teams were playing. It did not really work out well this year for African teams, they were disappointing. I had high hopes going into it that at least one team would advance to the semi-finals, and multiple teams advance into the knock-out round. For me, this led to some odd experiences, as my home-boys, the USA, played a couple African teams, including #1 Algeria.
There are three things that I learned about who Moroccans were cheering for:
1. African countries… home continent.
2. Other countries… who their favorite players played for. Usually this revolved around their favorite club teams (FC Barcelona and Real Madrid). For example, most people rooted for Argentina due to Messi being an FC Barcelona player. This means that Spain will be cheered on in the final.
3. Against any team that beat an African team (Example: rooting for The Dutch against Uruguay, due to Luis Suarez handball against Ghana)
How does this fit into the USA team???
Well, I had different experiences for the US games.
1. US- England – English pub in Rabat
2. US- Slovenia – House of extended host family
3. US- Algeria – Cafe in Rabat
4. US- Ghana – Local Cafe
Watching the US play football while outside the US was something of a familiarity to me. You see, last year, the Confederations Cup took place, as a pre-cursor to the World Cup. While few people in the US probably cared about the Confed, everyone here gathered around TVs to watch. The USA had a great showing, beating Egypt in stunning fashion (to the dismay of Moroccans) to advance, then upsetting Spain in the semi-finals, and leading most of the finals match with Brazil. To be honest, I don’t think I have ever cheered louder for the US boys. So I knew in a way what to expect when this 2010 edition came around.
The first two US games (England, Slovenia) were great, taunting England Nationals in Rabat before/after 1-1 draw, and then seeing what is one of the best comebacks EVER against Slovenia along with fellow Americans. Let me focus though on the next two matches.
US vs. Ghana- At a local cafe, it was hard to watch as the Boys in blue did not have it in them. This was compounded by EVERYONE else cheering for Ghana. Sigh. Oh well.
US vs. Algeria- This game was ridiculous. Everyone in the cafe was rooting for Algeria. I think what bothered me (along with other sport-folks) the most was that Algeria needed two goals, but sat back, content to get a draw, and not allow the US to advance (in the “if we aren’t advancing, neither are you!” mentality.) Compounding that, everyone in the cafe was equally as content to see a draw. As the game went on, I clearly made my presence felt, as I was sitting in the front, and cheering loudly.
As the game went on, I couldn’t believe how my stomach was knotted up. I cared immensely about this game, and when it entered injury time I began to worry. BUT, as we all know (I hope you know,) Donovan/ US scored, and won the game 1-0.
Hopefully you have also seen the youtube clip about this goal. Bars and places around the world where US fans gathered to watch. Erupting in cheer when the goal was scored. It was a similar experience for me, but I was the only one who cared… everyone else did not like me anymore. For me, it was one of my happiest moments as a sports fan (As I write I can’t think of a happier moment. I was too young to really feel the ’90 Reds sweep of the A’s.) I was so happy in fact, that I started to get watery eyes. I got a few congrats from people around me at the end of the game, and also I think a guy spit in my general direction (sore loser… it wasnt even his country!)
I have two more points to discuss before I end this entry. The first revolves around the popularity of Football in the US. I read an article in Huffington Post about Glenn Beck and G. Gordon Liddy discussing “soccer.” Read it here. Yes the Huffington Post is Liberal leaning. But Beck and Liddy are ignorant propaganda spinning jerks. Here is what Beck said:
“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us,” yipped the Prom King of new right, Glenn Beck. “It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get, it doesn’t matter how many bars open early, it doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run, we don’t want the World Cup, we don’t like the World Cup, we don’t like soccer, we want nothing to do with it.” – Glenn Beck
Apparently Mr. Beck does not read the Nielson ratings, where 17.1 Million Americans watched the US/England game. By comparison, that is more than ANY recent MLB All-Star game (America’s Pasttime???) and the recent NBA finals ONLY had 18.1 million viewers. Not calculated into this is the online viewers, which ESPN 360 and Univision had for free. So once again, Mr. Beck fails in actually doing his homework, and instead just spins it the “Right” FOX way.
In addition, G. Gordon Liddy said the following:
“Whatever happened to American exceptionalism? This game … originated with the South American Indians and instead of a ball, they used to use the head, the decapitated head, of an enemy warrior.”
WTF Liddy??? Where did he get this stuff from? F for Liddy for not doing homework.
Oh well, I can add these quotes to the list of reasons why American Elitists such as Beck and Liddy give us a bad name abroad, and sadly, many Americans take those jerks’ words to heart. They should realize that yes, soccer is increasing in popularity, and actually it is the most popular sport for youth in the US (as the Huff Post author points out.) Stick to Politics Beck and Liddy, which you already have enough trouble getting correct.
Lastly, I am sad the 2010 Edition of the World Cup is coming to a close. While in a little over two months the new Premier League/ Europa League/ Champions League season will be upon us. But nothing is like the world Cup, and nothing compares to experiencing the games abroad. I have hopes that I can emigrate to Brazil, and open a Pizza restaurant along the Atlantic coast, maybe in Rio, Maybe in Sao Paulo. I want to be there in 4 years when the World Cup goes to Brazil. I WILL be there. Does anyone want to give me a start-up loan so I can embark on this endeavor???
As for the finals match, I will once again be outnumbered (nothing new) at the local cafe, as I am rooting on the Dutch to victory. As I said, since FC Barcelona has a whopping 8 players on the field for Spain at any given time, they are the crowd favorite. I am becoming used to being the underdog, and I hope I can hold my head high, rather than put my tail between my legs.
My Predictions for the final games:
Dutch 2- Spain 1
Germany 4- Uruguay 2
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