So it has been a while since my last post and I am sure many of you have been wondering what I have been up to. Well, working for one… A LOT. I figure now is a good a time as any to put up something new, in this case a post about the world cup. Like most Americans, growing up I couldn’t care less about soccer, the only time I watched was during the world cup and I rarely rooted for America, because seriously, what was the point? There wasn’t going to be any parties and certainly nothing like I experienced a year and a half ago in Vietnam. That being said, this year is much, much different.
Everyone here is into soccer, and the biggest league is English Premier League, so they love them some England. Unfortunately most of them are Manchester United fans (which is kinda like rooting for the Yankees if you aren’t from NY). There are also a good number of English expats in Hanoi, so all of a sudden I am hearing a lot of trash talk. Well I am not just going to let my country get bad mouthed like that, especially by some crusty British expats who think their food is the best in the world, or some Vietnamese guys who think Wayne Rooney is the greatest thing since sliced bread (guy is a tool if you ask me). With this in mind I started slinging mud right back and pretty soon, I had “football fever”
In my adult classes, I now regularly discuss the world cup. In my kid classes, I have them play soccer and answer English questions. The last few weeks have been full of excitement. The games here begin at 6:30pm and the late ones end at about 3:30am. So a lot of it is in prime time. Every night you drive by buildings and see games on in the windows, people wearing the jersey of their favorite team, and TV’s that have been moved outside so that those who have street side food stands can watch as well.
As most of you know the USA has just won group C, beating out England. If you don’t know, this is surprising. But it is not half as surprising as some of the other games have been (ie Germany losing to Serbia, Spain losing to Switzerland and Italy tying New Zealand). Yet the two teams I said would reach the final (Holland and Argentina) have won all their games. This is also something I continuously bring up to my classes. My favorite defeat has been that of France, as it has allowed me to make fun of them using a French accent.
There have been so many great moments for the US, winning at practically the last second vs Algeria, Dempsey getting hit in the face and keeping on playing, and our coach Bill Bradley, quite possibly the fittest 53 year old alive, standing there in a track suit looking like he is ready to take the field, while the other coaches sit around in suits and ties. All of this is very American. Even our first goal brought back memories of England’s simple mistakes that led to the founding of our nation. I don’t know how much longer the US will be in the tournament, but I have had a great time cheering them on. It is strange that it took moving half way across the world to get so excited about US soccer, but then again maybe that is appropriate.
While I am on the topic, I have started wondering why it is that the US is not that into this game. Granted we don’t dig ties, but that just requires a rule change. One of the most common complaints is that the game is 90 minutes and that takes too long. But think about an American football game, because they stop all the time, they end up taking three hours, and with a 15 minute (or so) half time, and only about 5 minutes of stoppage time a soccer match is really only a little more than 2 hours and is very quickly paced with a lot less rules that American football. I recently taught a group of teenagers for their last week of school. Instead of actually teaching, I showed them how to play American football, but they got bored with all the stopping and changed it into a quicker paced game with no stopping.
In short, the atmosphere here is like how the USA gets during the NCAA basketball tournament, only X 10 and there are matches every day. How can you not get excited about that? Especially when your country is doing so well!
Tags: bill bradley, USA, vietnam, world cup
