Cultural Journal 4 - Caring About Football (Soccer)

I don’t watch sports at home; professional sports weren’t part of my upbringing, so they aren’t part of my life the way they are for some of my friends and relatives. But something about the sports culture here appeals to me. I found myself in Cork on Friday night, hanging on every moment of the end of the match, which had gone to a shootout. I cheered when Ghana made a shot, groaned when Paraguy made one, lamented when Ghana’s players decided to aim for the goalie and gnashed my teeth as Ghana’s goalie consistently dove AWAY from incoming balls. I complained for hours, even arguing with a classmate on the subject. This was a sport and a team I hadn’t given two thoughts to a month ago, yet suddenly I felt like I had a personal investment riding on them. The next day, I cried out in joy as Germany scored early in the game, pumped my fist when I heard they had won 4-0, and sat with a good view of the TV for the match later that night.
What is it about the soccer culture that draws me in? For one thing, 90 minutes is about as long as I’m willing to watch anything on TV. More interestingly, I’ve noticed that although you can easily identify which team various groups in pubs are rooting for, there is tremendous excitement whenever a goal is scored. There’s no heckling or booing, just enjoyment of the game. When I have been in a bar at home during a game, my experience has been that people get really aggressive about supporting their team and denigrating the other. This extends to derision of that teams fans, and in the case of Chicago Sox fans it seems inevitable that Cubs fans will be dragged through the mud, whether their team is playing or not. Sports in America have always seemed like a divisive force to me, pitting city against city in a race to the top slot. Soccer in Europe has that in the form of clubs, but the World Cup gives every country a chance to band together behind a national team, competing against other nations for genuine world dominance of a sport. American athletes remain, for the most part, isolated and insular – the best football team in America has never had to travel to France to prove their dominance in the sport, and the World Series is the worst-named competition in the country. I guess a big part of what I like about soccer over here is that come World Cup time, differences are put aside as a nation backs its team, and if that team is eliminated, everyone picks a new team, or two, or three to support for as long as they last.