Post by jimmyhillschin on Jun 18, 2006 13:40:49 GMT
:from football 365
How The Rest Of The World Is Viewing The World Cup
Alone In The World
It is a curiosity that, in a world dominated by the United States, there's such apathy on the other side of the big pond towards the world's most popular sport.
More than ten years after the country hosted The Greatest Show On Earth, America's lack of interest stands out like a teetotaller in a Munich beer hall.
In many respects, such isolation is symptomatic of the United States' isolation - and, many would argue, overbearing arrogance - on a world stage. When Gordon Brown announced that he would be cheering on Becks and the boys this summer the surprise wasn't that a Scot would actually public support England, but that he wasn't standing alone alongside the United States.
As The Economist recently noted of America's disregard for football, 'behind all this lies a bigger debate about America's cultural idiosyncrasy...America's exceptionalism has provoked a fierce debate between 'red' Americans, who are proud of their country's oddness, and 'blue' Americans who think that America should pay more attention to the rest of the world.'
Mediawatch has never before stumbled across the States-based twincities.com, the website of the leading newspaper for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in the heart of middle America, but the opening lines of its World Cup editorial suggests that it is redder than the sunburnt cardinals standing in front of the Red Sea eating tomatoes:
'If the government really is serious about identifying illegal immigrants, it soon will be provided a unique opportunity to record their whereabouts.
'All the Department of Homeland Security has to do is monitor the city-by-city television ratings of this month's World Cup soccer tournament. Agents should be dispatched to any area in which the ratings reflect an unnaturally high level of interest. That likely signals a concentrated pocket of illegals.'
As for 'real' Americans, 'We don't like soccer because we do understand it. And it's awful.
'It's time to quit apologizing and tell the truth. When it comes to soccer, we're right, and the rest of the world is wrong.
'Many spectators in soccer-crazed countries warm up for a big match by hitting their neighbor in the head with a brick. And as soon as little Nigel or Fiona is old enough, mum and dad take them out back and practice squishing them against a chain link fence.
'Yes, America may be the only country that doesn't go goofy for soccer. We also are the only remaining super power. Don't you see a connection there?'
America is also the most-despised country on earth. Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether they can they see the connection there.
How The Rest Of The World Is Viewing The World Cup
Alone In The World
It is a curiosity that, in a world dominated by the United States, there's such apathy on the other side of the big pond towards the world's most popular sport.
More than ten years after the country hosted The Greatest Show On Earth, America's lack of interest stands out like a teetotaller in a Munich beer hall.
In many respects, such isolation is symptomatic of the United States' isolation - and, many would argue, overbearing arrogance - on a world stage. When Gordon Brown announced that he would be cheering on Becks and the boys this summer the surprise wasn't that a Scot would actually public support England, but that he wasn't standing alone alongside the United States.
As The Economist recently noted of America's disregard for football, 'behind all this lies a bigger debate about America's cultural idiosyncrasy...America's exceptionalism has provoked a fierce debate between 'red' Americans, who are proud of their country's oddness, and 'blue' Americans who think that America should pay more attention to the rest of the world.'
Mediawatch has never before stumbled across the States-based twincities.com, the website of the leading newspaper for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in the heart of middle America, but the opening lines of its World Cup editorial suggests that it is redder than the sunburnt cardinals standing in front of the Red Sea eating tomatoes:
'If the government really is serious about identifying illegal immigrants, it soon will be provided a unique opportunity to record their whereabouts.
'All the Department of Homeland Security has to do is monitor the city-by-city television ratings of this month's World Cup soccer tournament. Agents should be dispatched to any area in which the ratings reflect an unnaturally high level of interest. That likely signals a concentrated pocket of illegals.'
As for 'real' Americans, 'We don't like soccer because we do understand it. And it's awful.
'It's time to quit apologizing and tell the truth. When it comes to soccer, we're right, and the rest of the world is wrong.
'Many spectators in soccer-crazed countries warm up for a big match by hitting their neighbor in the head with a brick. And as soon as little Nigel or Fiona is old enough, mum and dad take them out back and practice squishing them against a chain link fence.
'Yes, America may be the only country that doesn't go goofy for soccer. We also are the only remaining super power. Don't you see a connection there?'
America is also the most-despised country on earth. Perhaps the more pertinent question is whether they can they see the connection there.
