jass1960
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Bush wakes up to US team's impact on World Cup
From Roland Watson in Washington
ON THE that day the United States football team confounded its sceptics by claiming a berth in the last eight of the World Cup, President Bush confirmed why most Americans remain unmoved — they know nothing about the world’s most popular sport.
Mr Bush phoned the team to wish them luck hours before they dumped a fancied Mexican side out of the tournament, only to admit that the game was a mystery to him.
”A lot of people that don’t know anything about soccer, like me, are all excited and pulling for you,” he told the squad.
The reaction of the team, wearily used to playing a losing battle for public attention against baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey, was even more telling.
On being told that the President was about to come on the speaker phone, Landon Donovan, who later clinched the game with a second goal, said: “We were thinking, ‘which president’?” Mr Bush’s call is a sign that World Cup fever is catching on in the United States. Some sports bars have been licensed to open for the early-hours kick-offs and have done brisk, if alcohol-free, trade. But the vast majority remain immune to the excitement.
The American team is one of only nine countries to be playing its fourth consecutive finals, yet the tournament remains minority viewing and reading.
Sports pages recently have been overwhelmed by Tiger Woods’s progress in the US Open. The ABC television network, which is sharing coverage of the finals with the sports channel ESPN, is only showing recordings of the games it has elected to cover, leaving cable viewers grateful for access to Spanish-language channels.
Dave Wasser, a football historian from Austin, Texas, told The Times: “I’m almost embarrassed sometimes to see how little attention is given to such a great sport.”
But US football fans are used to third-class treatment. Frank Schweitzer, a 33-year-old lawyer in Washington DC and a lifelong fan, said: “It would be nice to be able to see people pouring out into the streets for a victory like this. But the US players and fans have grown up with the big four sports being what they are.”
Over the southern border, and a million cultural miles away, hundreds of Mexican fans did pour into the streets of Mexico City. The American Embassy had announced that it would be closed yesterday.
There was little doubt as to which country the game mattered most. Vicente Fox, the Mexican President, used his weekly radio address to the nation to state: “We have to beat the United States.” The Mexico City newspaper Reforma trumpeted: “This is war!” By comparison, the New York Times headlined its eve-of-match story: “Americans hope to show Hispanics that they can play.” Whether this tournament will prove a watershed for the American public, only time, and the team’s progress, will tell.
But there is nothing like a bandwagon to grab attention. Dave Wasser drew an analogy with the US men’s ice hockey team of 1980, the so-called Miracle on Ice that defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the Winter Olympics final. The first game the US played was not even a sell-out, despite being on home soil, but interest in the sport rocketed afterwards.
“If the USA gets to the semi-finals, it would help soccer hugely here,” Mr Wasser said.
Others take a different view. Joel Stein, in a satirical article for Time, said: “There are just two things about the World Cup that prevent Americans from caring: it involves soccer and the rest of the world. We’ll watch the World Cup when we win the thing, and not a second before.”
From Roland Watson in Washington
ON THE that day the United States football team confounded its sceptics by claiming a berth in the last eight of the World Cup, President Bush confirmed why most Americans remain unmoved — they know nothing about the world’s most popular sport.
Mr Bush phoned the team to wish them luck hours before they dumped a fancied Mexican side out of the tournament, only to admit that the game was a mystery to him.
”A lot of people that don’t know anything about soccer, like me, are all excited and pulling for you,” he told the squad.
The reaction of the team, wearily used to playing a losing battle for public attention against baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey, was even more telling.
On being told that the President was about to come on the speaker phone, Landon Donovan, who later clinched the game with a second goal, said: “We were thinking, ‘which president’?” Mr Bush’s call is a sign that World Cup fever is catching on in the United States. Some sports bars have been licensed to open for the early-hours kick-offs and have done brisk, if alcohol-free, trade. But the vast majority remain immune to the excitement.
The American team is one of only nine countries to be playing its fourth consecutive finals, yet the tournament remains minority viewing and reading.
Sports pages recently have been overwhelmed by Tiger Woods’s progress in the US Open. The ABC television network, which is sharing coverage of the finals with the sports channel ESPN, is only showing recordings of the games it has elected to cover, leaving cable viewers grateful for access to Spanish-language channels.
Dave Wasser, a football historian from Austin, Texas, told The Times: “I’m almost embarrassed sometimes to see how little attention is given to such a great sport.”
But US football fans are used to third-class treatment. Frank Schweitzer, a 33-year-old lawyer in Washington DC and a lifelong fan, said: “It would be nice to be able to see people pouring out into the streets for a victory like this. But the US players and fans have grown up with the big four sports being what they are.”
Over the southern border, and a million cultural miles away, hundreds of Mexican fans did pour into the streets of Mexico City. The American Embassy had announced that it would be closed yesterday.
There was little doubt as to which country the game mattered most. Vicente Fox, the Mexican President, used his weekly radio address to the nation to state: “We have to beat the United States.” The Mexico City newspaper Reforma trumpeted: “This is war!” By comparison, the New York Times headlined its eve-of-match story: “Americans hope to show Hispanics that they can play.” Whether this tournament will prove a watershed for the American public, only time, and the team’s progress, will tell.
But there is nothing like a bandwagon to grab attention. Dave Wasser drew an analogy with the US men’s ice hockey team of 1980, the so-called Miracle on Ice that defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the Winter Olympics final. The first game the US played was not even a sell-out, despite being on home soil, but interest in the sport rocketed afterwards.
“If the USA gets to the semi-finals, it would help soccer hugely here,” Mr Wasser said.
Others take a different view. Joel Stein, in a satirical article for Time, said: “There are just two things about the World Cup that prevent Americans from caring: it involves soccer and the rest of the world. We’ll watch the World Cup when we win the thing, and not a second before.”
