So, in watching a few games this year, I’ve heard announcers refer to various teams by their nickname, which usually makes sense, but I don’t think I’ve heard a nickname for the USA. Anyone know?
I was going to suggest ‘losers’ but that would just be mean.
What’s wrong with “Yanks”? That’s been our nickname for 240 years!
Usually it’s “The Yanks.” I saw some american fans holdings signs saying things like “We are the Yanks” and “go Yanks” and such.
I heard one commentator refer to us as the “stars and stripes” when we were against Ghana (they were the black stars). The guy said something like “the stars and stripes against the black stars…”
I prefer Yanks. Quicker and easier to say.
There’s no official nickname. This year may be the first time very many people have thought one was needed.
I’d recommend “Eagles.”
Nigeria has dibs on Super Eagles. We should go with Ultra Super (US) Eagles.
I’d go with just Eagles, I think.
According to Wikipedia, its both “The Yanks” and “The Stars and Stripes”. If you want “Eagles” to catch on, you better start spreading the word.
Although you risk being subjected to impromtu chanting renditions of “Hotel California” from the audience, and believe me, that would make Vuvuzuelas look like nothing.
Given our most recent series of goalkeepers: Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, Tim Howard, and even back ups Marcus Hahnemann and Brad Guzan, I’d go with Bald Eagles.
Plus “The Eagles” is a pop/rock group.
Still, we’re the Yanks.
I read one the other day that was pretty darn funny - The Septics.
The US national rugby team has already laid claim to “Eagles.”
I’d go with “Stars and Stripes.” A bit long, but it hits the mark.
BTW, for you Americans who haven’t heard the Cockney rhyming slang used above (I’m not sure where I heard it myself), septic tank = Yank: Americans = septics.
Funnay!!!
Paper Tigers.
Cockney has the word “cock” in it, no rhyming slang needed.
Septics = seppos in Australia. BTW, the US union team has already taken “The Eagles”
Proposed nickname for the U.S. team: Jozy and the Pussycats.
I think the US team is generally known as “Who?”
Confidentially… you can’t always go by Wikipedia. Wikipedia articles on sports teams list all kinds of fleeting or secondary references which don’t meet the standards of official sanction or permanence that the OP’s mentions do.
Besides its internal problems for some sections of the U.S., “Yanks” already stands, in certain other countries, as a nickname for Americans generally. “Stars and Stripes” is both the flag and a particular flag, and perhaps tertiarily the country generally. So I consider those unusable as actual team names. They will continue to be used as the colloquial references that they are, but they can’t be analogous to Three Lions or Bafana Bafana.
However, I guess the rugby team’s claim is a problem–though we Americans seem to be okay with our pro sports teams sometimes duplicating each others’ names, apparently that isn’t done among international sports?
Oops, no. My brain was fuzzy.
Both “the Star-Spangled Banner” and “Old Glory” are actual, particular American flags (the Fort McHenry flag of 1814, and the ship flag of William Driver in the 1830s, respectively) as well as nicknames for the flag.
“Stars and Stripes” apparently does not refer to any specific real flag.