I am not a very big soccer fan, but the interest has been with me for years. I first started getting into the World Cup during the 1990 tournament — which I think was the first year US television finally started showing matches uninterrupted. (Why it took them that long to figure out you could just put the advert in the scoreboard line at the top of the screen is beyond me.) I missed out on most of the tournament in 2002, so I’ve been looking forward to this one.
Now it is World Cup time again, and all 64 matches will be broadcast on TV here in the US, mostly live from Germany. I won’t be watching them all — would that I had the kind of time to do that — but it’s getting to be a lot of fun! I watched the first match (Germany v. Costa Rica) since it was the opener, and for the next three weeks, I’ll follow the fortunes of the USA, Mexico and Japan. I thought it might be fun too, to share a few thoughts on soccer, the World Cup, coverage in the US, and related stuff, now and then as the tournament progresses. And yeah, it’s a good excuse to use this image as a userpic. 🙂
Inevitably one of the things that comes up immediately before, and during, the tournament, is the fact that soccer is the most popular sport in the world, everywhere in the world … except the USA. Heck, we even have to call it something else. And all the old tropes about why it’s not so popular here get trotted out. I wouldn’t really mind so much if sportcasters would just say, “I just don’t get it,” or “It’s not my thing,” or suchlike. The ones who really bother me are the ones who wear their dislike of the sport like a badge of superiority. I’ve seen a couple of them who I otherwise respect greatly, Jim Rome and Keith Olbermann, getting on that wagon.
And then there are the ones, like the play-by-play guy for today’s Mexico v. Iran match, who don’t seem to know about the game, and so when broadcasting fall back on cliches, “storylines,” and just general nonsense. Half of his commentary sounded like BushCo propaganda and the rest … well, I wouldn’t be surprised if Oswaldo Sanchez’ father comes back from the grave just to smack the guy and say, “Enough about me having just died, already!” By halftime, I was thinking that we should have watched the coverage on Univision — even if I can only understand one word in ten, I’d’ve gotten more out of it.
Still … those gripes aside, it’s been great fun to watch so far.
Game on!