I imagine that many readers of this blog and listeners of Science… sort of wished the US played better with others when it came to foreign affairs. This can probably only happen when this country starts to have more respect for other countries and care about the things they care about; I’m not talking about socialized medicine or vegemite, so relax. I happen to think that if more Americans cared just a little about soccer than we would have a better understanding of world politics.
Stick with me and imagine this scenario…. You’re a basketball fan. What if instead of Chicago, New York, Miami, Cleveland, etc., LaBron James was considering going to Milan, Barcelona, Manchester, or Munich with an outside chance of going to Sao Paulo or Guadalajara? Ok, maybe you’d hate those cities (and their respective countries) a little more but you’d also probably respect them a little more too. Bonus, you’d probably also know where they are. That’s soccer. You’re not only worried about stars going to a different club, you’re worried about them going to a different country.
Know it or not, the US has their own professional soccer league, MLS. They actually have some decent players too: David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Thierry Henry, Juan Pablo Angel, Giovanni, Rafa Marquez, Freddy Ljumberg, and it’s rumored that Ronaldinho is on his way to LA. So, American soccer is not the backwater of sport that some might have you believe. Maybe it’s not the best league in the world, but so what, it’s ours – be proud.
As I write this San Jose and Colorado are battling it out in a playoff game for a spot in the final. Whoever wins will face the winner of LA vs. Dallas (watch it Sunday, NOv 14 at 9:00 ET on ESPN2) for the MLS cup on Nov 21 (8:30 ET on ESPN). Why not watch a game, you might even like it? Worst case scenario, you turn it off and watch an old Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Anyway, if Americans start liking soccer, they might find themselves inadvertently knowing where a few other countries are. Then, who knows, maybe we’ll sign the Kyoto Protocol.
oh dear…i can’t seem to escape soccer tonight. It wasn’t pleasant watching (or listening–since i don’t have the pleasure of having the Fox Soccer Channel and so had to listen to the commentary online) SJ Quakes lose tonight. But I have to agree that US would be much better off if they would just give soccer a chance. It really is an exciting game. And this is coming from a girl who hates almost all types of sports cause they remind me how horrible I am at them. It is a really active game, and they don’t have so many of those stupid boring periods that most sports have where you just sit there for five minutes waiting for something interesting to happen.
So here’s hoping that Galaxy gets crushed tomorrow.
I know. I’m bummed about the ‘Quakes loss.
I don’t know if I prefer LA or Dallas in the final though. I know I’m supposed to hate LA as a Quakes fan. I do most of the time, but when the Quakes aren’t in the playoffs (which lately is most of the time) I tend to root for the team with the biggest stars (figuring that it’s best for American soccer to have the most star power on the biggest stage).
The Kyoto Protocol was useless, us signing it would accomplish nothing. :-P
the world would have been in a better place had the us signed it and had all of north america tried to accommodate it. how much closer are we than in 1998 to a technical solution?! the only thing that has evolved in that time is the anti-global-warming rhetoric.