[nas] second thoughts on soccer

[daniel alvarez <vasco1550@yahoo.com.br>]

from instapundit.com

some good stuff. some bad, good reading on a slow day
with no games


http://www.instapundit.com/archives/001836.php#001836


June 17, 2002
SOCCER COVERAGE isn't really my thing, especially when
it provides no opportunities to twit the French. But
reader Jorge Schmidt sends this interesting
observation:


I've been following the latest World Cup games pretty
closely on Spanish-language TV and radio in Miami, and
I'd like to share the following observation: 

TV and radio commentators, and callers to radio shows,
call the American team "el equipo de todos nosotros"
(the team of all of us). This morning, as I was
driving home after the U.S. - Mexico game, there were
calls from Colombians, Argentineans, Brazilians,
Central-Americans of various stripes, all rooting for
the U.S. team, and all expressing the same sentiment,
that the American team was the "home" team. This is a
marked departure from previous World Cups, where
latins tended to stick with other latin countries if
their own didn't make the cut. I had never heard this
expression, "the team of all of us," before this World
Cup.

As one caller explained, they feel this way not just
because the U.S. is the country that received them,
but also because many have U.S.-born children, and
they want to teach their children to root for their
country. Who would have thought of soccer as a force
of acculturation and assimilation?


Hmm. Sounds good to me. And who know? Perhaps the U.S.
will exert a quieting influence on soccer hooliganism.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at June 17, 2002 02:27 PM


_______________________________________________________________________
Copa 2002
Yahoo! - Patrocinador oficial da Copa do Mundo da FIFA 2002
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