The Underground Man

I love football

No, not football American-style.

No.. the football that the rest of the world plays. I first became addicted when I spent a few weeks in the summer of 1990 watching the World Cup (the fabulous one in Italy). I was in the Cayman Islands visiting my uncle and his family and he had this HUGE satellite in the back yard that got every channel available. He is a soccer fanatic and was a big fan of the way Cameroon played (they had a fabulous run that year) and so we must have watched a dozen games. When I came back to the States there wasn't much opportunity to watch (no satellite, no Fox Sports World) so I had to wait until 1994 to watch real soccer again. I went to four games, including the quarter-final match between the US and Brazil on July 4th.

The US didn't play that well, but their future success (as well as their failures) in Japan 2002 was foreshadowed in the way that they pushed the ball up the pitch with great energy. Pace and aggressiveness made up for talent and they gave the Brazilians a run for their money (it wasn't until the 74th minute that the Brazilians scored the winning goal).

So I've watched four World Cups now and every time I watch more of the games. Last year in France, I caught every game of the England team (I follow them as I am a British subject) and got caught up in the French enthusiasm for the Senegalese when their own French team failed to get out of the pool round.

Notable was that the American team was probably the fittest in the tournament. Again, they made up for a dearth of talent (with a couple of notable exceptions like McBride, Reyna, and O'Brien) with incredible fitness and commitment. If they can gain the skill to go with the fitness I could see them doing even better in years to come. Of course, they need to get some new defenders. They were painfully slow when viewed on the international stage.

Unfortunately, we in America don't have a soccer culture. Just a football one.

Posted by artandscience at December 14, 2003 06:26 PM