ManicDDaily

U.S. player?

Sometimes one gets the feeling that the rest of the world wants to save soccer for itself.  (As in, butt out, America.)

Yesterday’s arbitrary and inexplicable bad call by Referee Koman Coulibaby of Mali that cost the U.S. the U.S./Slovenia game is only the tip of an iceberg that seems almost engineered to leave many Americans cold.

Well, maybe it’s not just the tip of the iceberg; maybe that type of thing is the upper third of the iceberg. Americans don’t like to feel disliked, disrespected, and/or general dissed by smaller countries  (see e.g. the U.N. and lack of popularity in the U.S. thereof.)

The problem wasn’t just Coulibaby’s seeming bias, but his initial silence as to the nature of his crucial call. Coulibaby’s speaking French was no excuse.  (Frenchspeakers are plenty good at arguing.)   The fact is that not explaining bad calls seems to be a traditional part of soccer culture–a major contrast from most U.S. sports in which a significant  portion of the drama is provided by the openly extended carriage (or miscarriage) of justice –all those little guys walking out onto the fields with stripes and flags and rather pompous magnified voices—

Speaking of unsatisfying, what’s with all the ties, called, I believe,”draws” by soccer aficionados?   I personally don’t mind ties; I hate to see people’s feelings get hurt.   (BTW, congratulations Slovenia!)   But I’m not sure my attitudes are typical of most American sports fans.   (As both Bush and Obama have found out, coalitions are not really our style.)

And the flopping.  (John Wayne/Bruce Willis do not appear to be soccer icons.)  We won’t talk about that.

But I will say that those vuvuzelas are getting truly irritating.  (I never thought I’d hear stadium noise that made Superbowl half-time shows sound good.)

That said, all the U.S. males I know and some of the U.S. females are following the Cup avidly.  I ask them to keep the sound down.

This entry was posted on June 19, 2010 at 10:11 am and is filed under elephants, news. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Americans' view of soccer, Does soccer want to save itself for the rest of the world?, irritating vuvuzelas--how can people think, Mali Soccer Ref, manicddaily, Manicddaily painting of elephant U.S. soccer player, Referee Koman Coulibaby, soccer elephant painting, things about soccer that Americans probably don't like, U.S.-Slovenia game, World Cup Soccer 2010