Chrissie & Scott & I watched the USA-Ghana game last Saturday at the Niederkirchener Weinfest. They whooped our butts. Ghana was fast, clever, strong, and talented, and definitely deserved the win.... unfortunately, they also displayed a healthy tendency to see what they could get away with, committing foul after foul. Quite unnecessarily, too, considering that although the US made an admirable showing, Ghana still could have beat us cleanly. Even more frustrating, most of these fouls were never even called! (Seriously, this World Cup will go down in history as displaying the most inconsistent and weird whistle-blowing practices of any tournament. There has never been so much outrage at the bogus calls, missed fouls, and discounted goals.... it's all over the news.)
That left us feeling not only disappointed at the loss but also unsatisfied at the messiness of the whole thing. Especially because, for some reason, everyone in the room was belligerently against us. E.g., every time Ghana would score, the whole room -- seriously, all the different tables -- would turn toward our table and hoot. We weren't being obnoxious; I can't think where this scorn came from. They were probably just drunk; and since Ghana is the last African country still in the tournament, everyone was predisposed to root for them, which is understandable. But I think a factor was also that this game was perceived as the "underdog" African nation versus the "superpower" USA, and oooo, let's show those arrogant Amis that they aren't so high and mighty. To be fair, this is indeed true economically: the US is (was...?) a superpower, and Ghana is much poorer. But exactly the same comparison could be made between Germany and Ghana, or any European country and most African countries, and yet this let's-all-gnash-our-teeth-at-those-bullies attitude was nowhere in sight for those games. It's like we were the world's good guys for just too many years, and so now everyone delights in our every little misfortune, including in sports.
I'm tireder than ever of this let's-all-disapprove-of-America fashion. I rather hoped that by now, it had become fashionable enough to not be considered fashionable anymore.
3 comments:
Oh how pissy of them! Especially since you cheered for Germany in their games!
Well, my friends had been rooting for the US in all of our games, which was sweet. These strangers clearly weren't thinking further than their next Schorle and behaving like soccer hooligans. I'll still root for Germany on Saturday...
What gets me is that it's not like there were Ghanaians in the room. There was no reason to be so aggressive, except sheer dickheadery. I would believe this we-care-so-much-about-the-African-team sentiment if it was actually demonstrated at *any* other game. This was just another excuse to jeer at the "Amis."
Heya,
I'm writing a "soccer treatise" on my blog at the moment, but I do feel an itch to commment. Ghana was NOT better than the U.S. Sure, they were more athletic and got off to quicker start, but they were not a better team. It was pretty even, especially in the second half. Maybe I'm just being stubborn, but "whooped our butts"? I beg to differ! Now, Portugal vs. North Korea, well, that's an ass-whooping. ;)
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