Not to say I agree with the either/or of American sports — baseball, basketball, football — and soccer. I readily grant you can like both, or all, or none. But, at the same time, if I happen to enjoy the big three while disliking soccer, that doesn't mean I'm somehow less intelligent or that I have neanderthal tastes (tastes being a particularly nebulous word which seems to me, the more I hear people pontificate on their "exemplar tastes," to mean "what I like makes me smarter and better than what you like").
The pageantry of the World Cup is wonderful, it really is, what with all the flag waving and chest pounding. If you enjoy these soccer shenanigans, you probably also enjoy the Olympics. Hoorah nationalism. Hyperbolic sportscasters and the puppet masters who decide how and what sports to market for mass consumption act as if these events are "the world coming together." Bullshit. Sure, these countries "come together" for the month-long event. It's all "we've always liked you" and "neutral zone? cross it? us?" while the game is on, but after, soon after, everything goes back to normal.
That's all sports, I get it. They're all a momentary suspension of reality — escapism. But most sports (American sports) don't act as if they are saving the world merely by existing. The World Cup is going to do jackshit for world peace or the oil crisis or sectarian violence. Maybe that's another reason I dislike soccer: It comes across as the intellectual, NPR listener, New York Times Book Review reading, bag of pretentious clichés person's choice, therefore inferring those that don't like or enjoy soccer are somehow anti-intellectual.
You're free to like soccer. There are plenty of valid reasons to love "the beautiful game." And I don't think every soccer fan sees the World Cup as God's quadrennial humanitarian kumbaya to all mankind. I won't begrudge you your joy. I will, though, begrudge you your smug generalizations and assumptions. I've got plenty of my own (feel free to let me know**).
Most of that is me being existentialist 22-year-old book kid. Still, suck my balls.
**Seriously. I realize I have all sorts of glaring blindspots.
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4 comments:
I used to 'hate' soccer, mainly because of the hooliganism that infected the game for years. And, like you, I used to appreciate the World Cup every four years, and then when the circus left town, my watching ended.
My wife (and I for that matter) can not understand what happened to me about 6 years ago - I discovered soccer in a way that now appears to be an infatuation that will stick for the rest of my life. However, it wasn't the international game that got me - it was club soccer, primarily in England, Spain, and Italy.
I have no idea how it happened, and I certainly can see how others simply ignore it or don't watch it - that was me for years. However, I'm certain that my start had nothing to do with the world-come-together aspect you mention, because that has no place in a match between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Believe me, there is no come-together when those two meet.
Something happened. Unpredictable, but it happened. Unfortunately, people who love the game feel like they have to defend it at the expense of others and other sports.
I have nothing to defend. I just watch and enjoy. If someone else wants to join my party, great. If not, they're not missing anything. There's nothing to 'get'. It gets you.
Nationalism? Perhaps, but not in the case of most American fans. There is something about the sport that is missing for the average US sports fan. It just doesn't capture the imagination well enough to form the emotional bond with the team or the sport - sort of like the Nordic skiing events for most Winter Olympics. We might do well every now and then, but we're nowhere near the top tier of competition.
In my case I find myself pulling for another nation - Germany. Mainly due to being 'in country' for both the 1978 and 1994 World Cups (right after Germany won thier last two titles in 1974 and 1988). "Football fever" there is really something special, with even qualifying matches approaching the Iron Bowl in fan intensity You would've thought the losses to Austria in 1978 and Bulgaria(??!!!) in 1994 were like losing WW I and II respectively.
Sullivan013
NorCalVol: "I have nothing to defend. I just watch and enjoy. If someone else wants to join my party, great. If not, they're not missing anything. There's nothing to 'get'. It gets you."
Well said. You're not at all the type of soccer fan that rant was about. Who knows, maybe one day I will be a soccer fanatic and regret writing this. (Doubtful, I think, as I have given it the old college try once or twice. But you never know.)
I played competitively (or as competitively as a young kid can play -- travel teams and the like) in my youth, and I really enjoyed playing. That part was fun. But watching does nothing for me. And people (whomever they might be, mostly imaginary or institutionalized people) saying I don't "get" it or that American sports are barbaric and not as "cerebral" as soccer pisses me off.
I'm not mad at any one person, just that smug sentiment, which causes this blind lashing out at soccer.
Both of you seem to be fans for the "right" reason (that strikes a bit smug, but oh well). Or you're at least not dickbags who think soccer is the end all be all of competitive sports. No sport is, and if anyone says so, they're wrong.
You can like all sports, no sports, only curling, only sports involving balls, whatever. I don't give a damn. Just don't tell me the only reason I don't like a particular sport is I don't get it or imply I'm not cool or smart enough to understand. That's my argument to my imaginary opponent.
I think it is safe to file this post under: "win" as the internet kids like to say.
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