España

As Barry goes, so goes the World Cup

I think I must be one powerful guy.

Really, I mean, look: I just spent some time in Barcelona, right? Spain.

And I’m about to go to the Netherlands.

Well, the World Cup final is this Sunday, and who’s playing in it? Yes, indeed: Spain and the Netherlands.

We know this can’t be a coincidence; the odds are too much against it, something like 1,759,438 to 1. Or thereabouts. Whatever. It’s not possible that it just, you know, happened that way.

No, sir-ee, this is better than Paul the psychic octopus, and no mistake! I have me some strong juju working. Y’all better keep that in mind.

The World Cup is in the quarterfinals, and the U.S. is not

Perhaps you’ve heard that the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup competition, with their loss to Ghana the Saturday before last. Sad for the U.S. team, indeed. But is it sad for all the American World Cup viewers? Should it be?

Most significantly, should they stop paying attention now?

On Friday’s Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, our local public radio station, they had a segment with this as a teaser:

Had they beaten Ghana, the USA would be playing this afternoon. So, why should you still care what’s happening in the world cup? Mike Pesca, NPR sports correspondent, and Franklin Foer, editor at The New Republic, soccer fanatic, and author of How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, join us to discuss soccer in the USA.

I didn’t listen to the segment, and don’t especially care to. I just find the idea that one might lose interest in a sports competition just because your team is out of the running... to be odd. And, yet, it seems a widespread attitude, which affects sports coverage, including our coverage of the Olympics — events in which the U.S. is not a significant force are often very lightly covered, with coverage focusing on those events the U.S. is expected to win medals in.

I don’t get it. If you like soccer, then

1. you ought to be interested in watching the World Cup whether the U.S. is in the competition or not, and
2. you ought to prefer to watch the best matches, which involves eliminating the weaker teams.

And, of course, if you don’t like soccer, then why would you want to watch it just because the U.S. is competing?

Maybe it’s because I don’t watch sports on television — though, honestly, if I’m going to watch something, I’d rather it be soccer than anything else — but I just don’t get the parochial my team or nothing attitude.