there seems to be absolutely no home real home support for the US World Cup team. We Americans know how to do one thing really well: cheer for a winner. Nothing wrong that, per se. But what happens when you lose? you're dead. I think it is a product of America's self-perception of it being the best at everything that it does. the strength of this country has created the attitude that, if you are not strong, we will eat you. you see this kind of behavior in the animal kingdom (a member of which humanity denies), but i expect better of an "evolved" species. it seems logical to me that the losing team needs the most encouragement.
I have heard a lot of people put down the American team because of their lose last week. thats fine. maybe they do suck. i have not seen them play, any of them, at all. I just like the fact that we are there.
its likely they will not take the Cup, but lets cheer for the boys anyway, eh? unless you have other teams you support, why not? my girlfriend, having dual citizenship (of a sort) is the only one i know of with an excuse. and she hates sports. i am curious to see what happens to Fat Phil come this fall.
USA! USA!
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It's true--I'm not cheering for the US soccer team. There are two reasons; neither have to do with winning.
(1). I hate soccer. I don't understand it. It seems ridiculous that you would handicap an athlete by restricting the use of hands. I don't have the time nor inclination to figure it out. So I haven't. And thus I do not care how our/their/your soccer team performs.
(2). America has too many other things! Why do we have to compete against the world here too? The only sensible reason is to let them beat us so that the great global yin-yang can remain equal. If that's why we're playing, great! Go USA! If we're playing to win, we're crazy. These countries grow up eating/breathing/drinking soccer, and we think that by putting a few AYSO teams in key suburbian locations that we can all of the sudden compete? Crazy!
So to rephrase/summarize: we're either going to win, but can't even compete on their level, thus we've made the world cup something akin to the special olympics. I heart the special olypmics, but I don't encourage special olympic athletes to load up and head to the other olympics b/c there are two different levels of competition. OR we're going to get a token asskicking, and we're back to the special olympics theory. Our participation, in my opinion, cheapens the event.
RE: Phil.
I don't think "true" UT fans hate Phil because he had a losing season. I will concede that UT fans LOVE to win, but UT fans will have an emotional bond with UT regardless of stats. It's part of what keeps us going game after game. We love the rush of beating Florida or Alabama. Waiting to see if the QB du jour can make it up the left, finally! Or if the runningback will make the play he's been missing all game. TBut we also lvoe the rush of losing to Florida and Alabama cause next year's the year we'll get those bastards. The outcome of the games are secondary.
What we hate about Phil is his lack of leadership. The fans who will be at his house, packing his precious bowl rings in garbage bags to put into the Uhaul (myself included), have been fans since the Sugar Bowl of 1986, through the down years that followed and back for the fluke of a national championship that followed in 1997. It wasn't the wins that drew us, but the players and the sense of community inspired by a big orange T. We saw Andy Kelley play his heart out, Heath Shuler play his heart out, Peyton play his heart out, T Martin play his heart out. What we see now is a group of misguided kids who are long on entitlement and short on work ethic and a coaching staff that plays into that to keep their 7 figure contracts. If that's the way you're going to play it, then you better by-God show up with some wins.
Phil is not UT. The players that show up and half-ass for four quarters and then bitch about what they didn't get are not UT.
UT is regular folks who get together on Saturday for cold beer and hot dead stuff and talk about it. Hard workers who share a common love for the college that represents their home, either metaphorically or literally.
That common interest that draws them together will not change with Fat Phil or losing seasons. Even if they bitch about it.
--Stacie
Also, you kinda sound like Leland.
--Stacie
"If we're playing to win, we're crazy."
We need to talk. First, the games being played are the WC Finals. No team showed up to Germany without first qualifying. Regardless of the hype for some matches and "great upsets," all these teams are great. That includes the USA.
I overheard several law students say USA sucked b/c we lost to CZ. Uh, no. If USA sucked to any degree, we would not have held Italy for 90+ minutes of play, much less the majority of the second half during which we were one man short of Italy. "Oh, but Dude- we said USA sucked before we saw them hold Italy." Malarcky. If USA sucked, we would not be playing in the WC Finals. "Oh, but Dude- Italy scored our only goal." True, but we scored a goal, negated by an offsides; I will challenge one of our red cards, if not both; we owned Italy for the first 30 minutes of the game; if Italy was so good they shouldn't have scored on themselves- we didn't make that mistake. Further, name me a single sport without an element of luck.
There is a single team that can be picked for nearly every match, and that is the team representing Nike, err, I mean the team representing Brazil (sorry, if you don't watch, you won't get that). Other than that, people should not be surprised by the "upsets," this is soccer, a very dynamic game. Fortunately for WC fans, "any given sunday" is everyday of the week from June till July.
Face it people- if you turn on the tube this Thurday, you will see 11 of the best soccer players in world, and they will be Americans. Olé Olé- Go USA!
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