The Washington Post’s Mark Fisher, a master of what they call in the pro wrestling trade, generating cheap heat.
Certainly a U.S. team’s success in the World Cup would boost the sport’s ability to win TV coverage and notice from Americans, most of whom have no idea that the World Cup exists, let alone that it is occurring this month. But most Americans have no clue who is on the U.S. team or even that there is a U.S. team, so the past performance of that team is irrelevant. It’s very nice for soccer-loving countries to have their little tournament, but to call it the World Cup is rather arrogant and overblown.
Ah, jingoism at its finest.
To paraphrase David Cross: Sometimes I hate our freedom of speech.
Marc consistently goes for the cheap heat in everything, from local school board issues to neighboring district’s school board issues.
But is it untrue? Does the World Cup truly hold any interest for the majority of Americans or even a strong minority, such as baseball or the stanley cup might? I vote no. I have less interest in soccer than I have in football and would be pleasantly surprised if both went the way of hockey, which at least has ice to be interesting. I sat through the first hour of the British “Fever Pitch” and skipped to the last chapter. if one was a sports junkie, and I know people who used to buy every hit rock album from Warrant to Limp Bizkitt without discerning quality from drivel, and one watched every sport that was on the news, then soccer or football are just part of one’s vocabulary. But to treat them seriously, as something worthy of fannish interest? Not in the culture I grew up in. Call me a rockist, but that’s the way I live and I’m not going to listen to Eurodisco, German metal ballads, or run of the mill reggaeton when I can discern quality.
Avoiding soccer is expressing discriminating taste. There is nothing positive about embracing every sport.
Don
Don,
ok. You’re a rockist.
You’re full entitled to your wacky opinions, but unless you’re attempting some form of satire ala Mr. Fisher, I don’t think having endured Colin Firth’s performance in “Fever Pitch” is indicative of having actually given the game a fair try. Not that you’re obliged to.
And what does the culture you grew up in have to do with anything? If life’s experiences are meant to be exclusive to those that are part of our indigenous culture, not only does said culture stagnate, but there’s all kinds of awesome stuff we miss out on, sporting and otherwise.
I might’ve grown up in the shadows of ivy league universities and been surrounded by all forms of sea-trash, but that didn’t stop me from embacing Santeria.
I mean, if you were such a wizard at discerning quality, what the fuck were you doing watching “Fever Pitch” in the first place?