Congratulations Spain, you’ve earned it.
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I’m glad to see you finally acknowledging Pau Gasol’s success.
By Chucky · 2010.07.12 20:18
I’m glad no one’s being bitter.
By Jesper · 2010.07.12 20:21
After the NBA Finals were over, I actually watched some FIFA this year, for the first time since ‘86 (when I was in a non-US country and watching FIFA was the thing to do.)
Loved the US/Algeria and Algeria/Uruguay matches.
But, I dunno, I guess WW I just isn’t an American fable. There is no natural access to the WW I narrative for an American, while WW I is deeply embedded into the European unconscious. So soccer just isn’t going to work here, (until we win a World Cup, of course, at which point we’ll adopt it as our own.)
I keep waiting for Uruguay to produce some good NBA players. Their FIBA teams are always good, and they’re almost a part of Argentina, which is basketball-mad, so…
By Chucky · 2010.07.12 21:27
To each their own.
I enjoy basketball but it’s been a long time since I watched a full game. In full tempo games, scoring happens a little too often. Handball has a slightly less frantic pace. (I don’t watch that a whole lot either.)
I think that the people that did watch this year were pleased to see that it’s not all passing for 90 minutes. Maybe they’ll even eventually get over the fact that sometimes, matches end in ties, and that it’s the insistence on relentlessly breaking them in every game that’s weird.
By Jesper · 2010.07.12 21:48
“I think that the people that did watch this year were pleased to see that it’s not all passing for 90 minutes. Maybe they’ll even eventually get over the fact that sometimes, matches end in ties”
I don’t think that is the US objection to the sport.
Soccer, to me, in pacing and structure, is much like baseball, hockey, and Japanese sumo (where I was in ‘86.) Baseball and hockey enjoy success here despite the soccer like structure.
I really think it’s as simple as American football is a WW II metaphor, while soccer is a WW I metaphor, and one of the two just works much better for the American shared consciousness.
And I enjoyed baseball, hockey, and sumo in my youth, so I can appreciate the essential appeal of soccer. However, in my adulthood, I needed to restrict my sports viewing to a single sport in order to not become a “sports guy”. And hoops was the easy choice for me.
The joy of hoops is not that each team scores an average of 1.1 point per possession. It’s not about the lots of scoring. It’s about the amazingly intense rhythm and flow of the game. I can utterly lose myself for the entire playtime of a good high-level hoops game in a way I never could in any other sport.
Or to pick another set of terms, soccer, baseball, hockey, and sumo are classical music. Hoops is jazz or rock ‘n’ roll. And that’s where my bread is buttered.
By Chucky · 2010.07.12 22:21