English Barely Emit a Yawn
The United States soccer team played Monday, and the birthplace of soccer shrugged.
OK, England didn’t shrug; it sort of twitched.
OK, it didn’t even twitch; it just walked out of the office and down the sidewalk toward the Tube station without noticing.
Irrelevance may feel odd to us natives of the alleged World’s Lone Superpower, but we can find it by alighting in England during a World Cup. Here, our team gets no respect, no disrespect, no praise, no derision and none of the spite, loathing, distaste, resentment and everyday bad vibes normally reserved for the U.S.
The strongest emotion witnessed all day might’ve been Jim White’s column in the Daily Telegraph, which told of the corporate fan’s park in Frankfurt, where the Budweiser cheerleaders performed “live commercials for the insipid liquid that pays their fees.”
Ennui ruled the pubs of touristy Covent Garden, where I figured -- mistakenly -- I might find little batches of Americans but found only barely audible applause at only one moment: the Czech Republic’s third goal.
“A comprehensive victory,” the BBC’s broadcast team concluded as if speaking of Mexico-Iran, employing a pet English term for rout we really ought to borrow.
Those Yanks: just another straggler in the struggle, trying to elbow into the superpowers. But my, what security they draw.
That sound showing in the 2002 quarterfinal against Germany? Why, they might’ve even deserved to win, those plucky little upstarts!
England did root for the U.S. that day in 2002, but, of course, that had nothing to do with the Americans. I got a window into the Motherland’s view of the U.S. team in February by joining some Chelsea fans at their pub on a Saturday noonish, for their pregame ritual of consuming enough beer to stagger large farm animals while complaining that 21st-century TV has moved many kickoffs to 12:45, diminishing beer time.
After about 45 minutes, they finally got around to the minutiae of United States soccer, which entailed four topics. They complimented our fine goalkeepers, while allowing that, of course, we’d master the lone task that permits the use of hands. They asked about Freddy Adu. They marveled that so many people went to see the U.S. women play in 1999 because the thought of going to a women’s match never had occurred to them.
And they brought up that match from France 1998. You know, that match. In my experience, they bring that one up more than any other.
“How ‘bout Iran?” one said gently, eyebrow cocked slightly, seeing if he’d get a rise.
Iran 2, United States 1, remains Iran’s only victory among five losses and a draw during three World Cup finals appearances. The United States itself got over that outcome in about five minutes -- no, really, four. But here in the birthplace of soccer and the capital of the world, it remains evidence for dismissal.
*
BERLIN -- “What a disaster,” said Ron Moore, wiping the sweat off his forehead right after the U.S. lost to the Czech Republic, 3-0.
“If we could have achieved at least a draw, we would have kept a small chance to make it to the next round. Now I guess, it’s over,” said Moore, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen who works as a computer programmer in Berlin.
He came to the game Monday at the Adidas Arena wrapped in a Stars and Stripes banner. The arena is a smaller copy of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium and is one of Berlin’s top public screening places.
Also on hand was Benjamin Sommer, a 17-year-old German college student who had just returned from an exchange year in Dallas.
“I still see a chance for the U.S. guys. Consider Australia. They struck three times in the last eight minutes after being behind 1-0. The U.S. boys can easily beat Ghana and, with a little luck, even Italy,” Sommer said. “I guess, the U.S. team is good enough for the quarter- or semi-finals.”
And who will be world champion? “Germany, of course,” grinned Sommer, who took a sip of his Coke and walked away waving his U.S. flag.
-- Christian Retzlaff
