It seems to me that the U.S. team’s success in the World Cup has garnered more resentment for our country than respect. I’m wondering are there any Dopers from overseas that are pulling for the U.S. in the Cup?
Negative cheering doesn’t count either. So if you’re pulling for the U.S. just because you hate Germany or Mexico or whomever that doesn’t count. Nor does it count if you’re cheering for them to take out the top contenders so your nation’s team can more easily advance.
I think people love to cheer for underdogs, yet people are making a big exception in this case.
Keep your responses to the point. PLEASE don’t turn this into a Great Debates thread!
I think the mind set would probably be - if the final was Germany v Brazil - euro precision v latino machismo and passion - would the Yanks give a damn?
The answer would be, no, to them Darryl Strawberry’s left achilles tendon is MUCH more important than the biggest sporting event in the world for the next 4 years, so we would prefer the teams that are really followed by their fandom to be the ones in the semis and final.
Nope, sorry. I was cheering for Japan (obviously!) until they lost today. So tonight I will barrack for Korea.
And I have to agree with what BalmainBoy said (and not just because he is an Aussie!). Its really annoying to see how hyped Japan has been because of the success of the Japanese team, and then see the non-interest of the American public. Especially now that Japan is out of the competition (although I will admit they played poorly today).
Well, I think it’s important to outline a few things here. First, football isn’t very popular in the US. That’s why the majority of the American public are still not interested in the results, or have a “Huh. Quarter finals. Whaddayaknow?” attitude.
Think of it this way, Tsubaki. Say, the Australian national ice hockey team (I clearly state Ice Hockey, dear Americans, because in both Tsubaki’s native country as well as mine, field hockey is the default ;)) advances to the semi finals of the ice hockey world championships by beating the Czech Republic and Canada. If you’re already an ice hockey fan, you’ll be going apeshit: finally, your team is doing what the other major countries have been doing for so long!
However, if you don’t care about ice hockey (as chances are ;)), your reaction will probably be, “Huh. OZ ice hockey team beats Canada. Not bad. Ooooooh, the new Kylie album’s out!”.
It’s all about perspective. Sure, when the US wins a match, we get images of Americans dancing in bars and in the streets, sporting flags and face paint. But tell me, don’t we get those from ALL countries? It’s just that those fans are not in the majority in the US. If anything, the results of the US team will inspire a bigger popularity for “soccer”.
Am I rooting for the US? Well, what with my home team not even in the tournament and my personal fave (Ireland) already out, I wish them all the best. Their progress has been enormous, and I salute them for it. No hard feelings here.
But are the U.S. the underdogs? They’ve done pretty well in the world cup before - 1994 springs to mind. The U.S. got through to the final 16 and lost 1:0 to Brazil - the winners of that world cup. Just because most Americans know or care little about soccer doesn’t mean that the team are piss poor. Have they done well to get where they are? Sure they have. Is it really a major shock? No.
In terms of underdogs, well most of them got knocked in in the group stage - How many of us thought that Saudi Arabia had a chance? Hell, I didn’t think Japan and South Korea would get this far.
If you’re looking for an underdog team, look no further than Senegal. First ever world cup and through to the quarter finals having beaten France and Sweden. That’s impressive.
The odds are stacked against you against Germany, that’s true. I don’t think there’ll be an Englishman alive who doesn’t want the U.S. to win that one (Okay, for all the wrong reasons)
That about sums up my feelings for the US team. No animosity to the US, but a whole lot of other teams are just more appealing: Senegal, Japan, Korea, Ireland. I’m happy when these teams win because of the outpouring of enthusiasm from their fan bases. The success of the US team, on the other hand, just doesn’t grip me because I know it doesn’t mean as much to their nation. Further, while the US may be a underdog in football , it’s certainly not an underdog in sport generally.
I’ve no problems with the US team winning, in fact, I’ll be just as happy to see the happiness in the players’ faces as I was today, when Korea beat Italy.
But what I don’t like is disrespect of the sport, as demonstrated by Jdeforrest. I’ll happily cheer along with any genuine fan, though.
I go to an international school, containing at least one person from each country in the cup (perhaps not some of the African ones). Generally, if you are not from the US, England or Germany, then you do not support those teams. Why? I think it’s largely because they’re not very ‘likeable’ countries. England and Germany because of their Imperialist/WWII history, and the US because of it’s current power (and use of it). People don’t want them winning something else. Supporting any other country seems fine - even France got some non-native support.
For the US in particular… Keeping in mind the above, these are the reasons I feel most responsible for it’s lack of non-native support. I am not stating these as fact, just giving what I believe to be common opinions.
1: Nation Not Deserving
The vast majority of US don’t seem to be following the World Cup, nor do they really care when they hear results. People would rather have it so some under achieving African country would win , rather than a country where most people will just stuff the win amongst a stack of other international victories. The US is hardly a soccer-nation after all.
2: US Win Too Much Already
The US already either win or come high up in the Olympics, Winter Olympics, and other sporting events, as well as achieving in economic, political areas, etc. People don’t want the US taking home yet another trophy.
3: People Reckon They’re Being Lucky
Yeah, nearly everyone is bitter about the US victories. Notably the fact that the US beat Portugal, but failed to victor over Poland. The US’s victory in the Mexico game has also raised plenty of irritation. Whether they are being lucky or not, it’s many people’s mindset.
I don’t believe I disrespected the sport. I think soccer (football) is a fine sport. It jlies outside my general tastes so I will only watch when it comes to big events such as the World Cup.
I just know that there is probably a lot of anti-American sentiments floating around because of the reasons stated by Insecta. I know it isn’t nice of me…but I can’t resist rubbing it in a little
If the Aussie Ice Hockey team beat Canada in a world championship, I think most Aussies would be MORE stoked than what they usually are when Aust. wins the cricket. Because it would be totally unexpected. And probably once Aust. got through to the quarter finals, you’d have a lot of Aussies trying to find coverage of the upcoming games on TV.
Same with the Winter Olympics. I sure as hell didn’t expect Aust. to walk away with ANY gold, let alone two! I would love to have been in Aust. at that time to see the public’s reaction. It was good enough here, talking with Aussie friends and glowing with pride.
As for the rest of the World Cup…I was going to barrack for South Korea until I saw the game last night. I was so annoyed at the fans booing Italy every time they got so much as a toe to the ball. What’s with that?
We have the national sekkertary of the Australian Speed skating Association working here, and he says when ol’ Steve Bradbury won the gold (because everyone else in the final fell over) the number of people that want to come and do it went thru the roof.
Pity that Sydney only has 2 ice-skating rinks for them to practise on…but it does appear to be the easiest way at present to win a gold medal (except for lawn bowls at the Commonwealth Games).
Sometimes it’s better to see things in psychological terms instead of political. Hurt pride is a dangerous thing especially hurt male pride. I once spoke briefly with an Egyptian man about such things. I understood from him that any infatuation with U.S. culture that children or teenagers have in the Middle East is deeply resented by older generations. I was surprised to hear there was infatuation but apparently it’s a baseball cap kind of thing. I remember suggesting that what was needed was middle eastern versions of Springsteen or Mick Jagger or whatever was possible. My country has someone called Mikey Havoc who serves a similar kind of purpose.
It’s so sad that Americans play among themselves so much, I realise that. And calling U.S. football, baseball and basketball “World Series”, is kind of pathetic. But it would be better in the short term if foreigners were to challenge the U.S. in grid iron than if the U.S. were to dominate soccer. There must be some country somewhere that could get together a team of equally attractive bottoms.
I guess it depends on the crowd. Reading through the BBC sportstalk on the USA team (scroll past all the Americans) and they were all positive when I read through.
I thought slate’s ariticle was interesting but after thinking about it for awhile it doesn’t fit for S. Korea or Japan.
People indeed tend to root for the underdogs, indeed. But despite the US being an underdog as far as soccer is concerned, people would have a hard time considering the US as such, on the overall, which strongly diminish the likehood that someone will root for them.
Personnally I couldn’t care less, but most french soccer supporters currently cheer the Senegal team for various reasons…
So in short, the answer to the question in my OP is pretty much “no” (I noted one exception, way to go Rick).
Generally, I avoid sports. I don’t cheer for any of my hometown teams. I think the guys on team USA are worth an exception, however.
This is a team that is ignored at home and hated everywhere else. These guys take endless abuse (see how warmly they will be welcomed by the Korean fans when they take the field against Germany). Their victories are discounted as either luck or the result of some conspiracy. The combined salaries of all the players on the entire team is less than what Louis Figo makes. Still they persevere. Talk about love of the game.
Almost everyone in this thread pointed out that the US team isn’t worth rooting for because Americans won’t be passionately following their team on TV. True enough, Americans generally suck at watching soccer on TV (especially with games played at 4:30 AM).
So, you don’t even cheer for your hometown teams but expect people from other countries cheer for the US?
Okay, as you say the team is pretty much ignored at home - How do you then come to the conclution that they are hated everywhere else? What endless abuse have they suffered? Go see Celtic play Rangers or Leeds play Man U, pal - you’ll see what abusing the other team means.
As to your claim that their victories have been discounted as either luck or the result of some conspiracy - WTF? Uh, yeah they have been lucky. But so have England (The country I’m from). Luck is a huge part of the game of football and one of the things that make the game great: On any given day a team can be beaten.
That’s not really a good reason. They also sucked at watching soccer in 1994 when the USA hosted the world cup.
