WORLD CUP USA 1994 : Soccer in the Colonies : British Were Going to Keep a Stiff Upper Lip, but Things Have Changed: How ‘Bout Them Irish!

The sometimes brilliant play in the opening round of the World Cup has left British fans with mixed emotions. As a soccer-loving nation, they are thrilled by the action. But without a team in the tournament, they aren’t sure whom to root for.

The United Kingdom, which claims to have invented professional soccer, is allowed to field four teams in World Cup competition--England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Although those teams showed flashes of inspiration during the long competition for a berth in the finals, none qualified. When England failed, the nation’s sports fans were humiliated and furious--and the coach of the team, Graham Taylor, was fired.

On the eve of the first U.S. World Cup, much of the British media and public was in a carping mood:

What did the Americans know about soccer? The stadiums would be half-empty. The World Cup would be a disaster--and with good riddance for trusting the competition to the upstart Yanks.

The U.S. team was in the competition, the grumbling ran, only because it was the host country.

At first, the British sports pages turned to coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament and Wimbledon tennis. Writers on the World Cup had trouble placing the events in the proper venues. Chicago, for instance, was described as a city in Michigan.

But in the last week, the mood in Britain has changed markedly. Pubs are full during games. Some Britons arrive for work bleary-eyed after watching a post-midnight game. And, surprise, the Brits have a team to cheer for.

That team is fielded by Ireland--a country with which Britain has always had an ambivalent relationship.

“We used to look down on the Irish in football,” commented one professional man who adjourns to his suburban pub during evening World Cup matches. “Now we’re looking up at them. Go Ireland!”

The British media seemed overjoyed when Ireland beat the highly touted Italians in their first game, and all the papers have assigned a reporter to the Irish training camp in Orlando, Fla.

Actually, there are plenty of reasons for the British support of Ireland.

The Irish manager is a famous and popular Yorkshireman, Jack Charlton, whom Dubliners have christened “St. Jack.” He is a brother of the English soccer star, Bobby Charlton, who was just knighted for services to sport.

And almost all of Ireland’s team plays for British clubs. Some of the Irish players have dual citizenship but chose to play under the flag of the green, white and orange.

So the British have adopted the Irish team. As John Duncan, the soccer writer of the Guardian newspaper, observed, “A lot of people here are struggling through their ancestry to find an Irish connection.”

And the best-selling tabloid, the Sun, which knows a good story when it sees one, has urged its readers to fax good-luck messages to the Ireland squad through the newspaper.

Not given to understatement, the Sun declared: “We want you to get behind Jack Charlton and his Republic of Ireland World Cup heroes.”

Ireland notwithstanding, such has been the quality of play that British television spectators have had plenty to watch and to lift their sporting spirits. Every newspaper has columns of results and comment.

“The fact is, the level of football has been so good that it has encouraged a high level of interest,” wrote Duncan. “There are so many good matches to watch that we don’t really need our own team.”

England, although it has won only one World Cup, always has performed well when it reached the finals. It lost to Germany in 1990 only through penalty kicks, and in 1986 lost to Argentina when Diego Maradona scored on an obvious but unpenalized hand ball, which he christened “the hand of God.”

Thus, the British fans can boo their personal villains.

“Everybody is just itching for the Germans to mess up and for the Argentinians to get stuffed,” Duncan said. “At the same time, we like underdogs, so there are all sorts of teams like Saudi Arabia to keep us amused.”

What has genuinely surprised the British, as well as many others, is the wonderful show being made of the World Cup.

“The Americans have done really well,” said one fan. “We are impressed by the size of the crowds. There are very few places in the world where you’d get 43,000 people to turn out for a match between Nigeria and Bulgaria.”

The papers have gone so far as to compliment the American team and the U.S. sports fans. As one writer remarked, “Americans don’t like draws. But it beats losing.”

After the first week, British writers had definitely changed their tune. As a leading writer, Rob Hughes, reported from Washington, “Soccer will never colonize America, may never sink its contagious roots here, but it is beginning to turn the tide of skepticism.

“Ten games have passed, none without a goal and none importing hooliganism. Quicker than we expected, the host is feeling more comfortable staging the premier event of a game addictive to the rest of the world.”