International Underdogs

In 24 hours I depart New York, and in 48 hours I will arrive in Johannesburg (with a brief layover in Dubai in between), so this will be my final post from the States before I leave.  While my real World Cup adventure is still a day or two away, I spent a lot of time this weekend watching various games on ESPN and ABC, of course highlighted by the USA versus England match on Saturday afternoon.  By now every news outlet has reported everything that needs to be known about the game - the USA held its own, got a huge break from the English goalkeeper, and earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw.

I watched the game at a bar on 26th Street here in Manhattan (The Ainsworth, which is a great place to watch football and the NCAA basketball tournament, too), along with hundreds of other USA fans and dozens of England fans.  We arrived an hour before the game started and the place was packed; every bar I passed while walking over from the subway was filled, too.  The energy was unbelievable, and it was weird to think that all of these people were gathered to watch soccer, a sport that most Americans stop caring about after they quit their youth teams at age ten.  I started wondering what was it about the USA Soccer team that had people all excited this World Cup.  It can't be patriotism; no one was getting a big group together at a bar to watch USA Basketball in 2008 or USA Hockey this past February.  It also can't be people jumping on the bandwagon (or at least not in the traditional "I want to be part of a winner" sense); the USA might be favored to move on to the second round, but isn't expected to do any more than that.  It definitely can't be soccer itself; half of the people at the bar barely knew the rules of the game.

Maybe it's the fact that, for once, the USA is the underdog.  In virtually every other athletic competition, we're expected to win.  What fun is USA Basketball when a victory by less than 15 points is considered a failure?  Soccer is different, though - this is the world's game, and the USA is but a small part.  Rather than having all of the talent, the USA is known internationally for its grit, work ethic and determination.  The USA versus England game played out as a microcosm of the USA's relationship with international soccer; we might not have been as talented as England, but we worked just as hard (if not harder), refused to give up when things looked grim (after England scored in the fourth minute to take a 1-0 lead) and clawed out a tie against one of the world's best.  Even the two goals presented a perfect contrast - England's was pretty, ours was dirty, but they both counted the same.

 Clint Dempsey's "ugly" goal evened the score at 1-1.

The USA Soccer team might not represent what the USA is actually all about, but does represent what the USA should be all about.  Effort.  Teamwork.  Tenacity.  I've always had a patriotic streak, and have always been proud to be American.  After watching the USA battle England on Saturday, I'm now proud to be an American soccer fan, too.  I can't wait to get out to South Africa and don my red, white and blue.

NB: Most of my posts from South Africa will (probably) come from my Blackberry, so I ask that you excuse any typos or formatting errors.  I'll try to clean them up when I get computer access, but I want to post real time and will sacrifice some aesthetics in order to do so.  You'll also notice that the posts will likely be shorter, again in an effort to post real time while traveling.  I can be reached at my Yahoo! account while abroad, so feel free to contact me with comments or questions and I'll try to answer them in my posts.