One of the most exciting days on the world's sports calendar passed with hardly a whisper here in the benighted USA [I must admit that, absent media prompting, I forgot the date ahead of time myself]. But the World Cup 2010 draw was made on Friday and I couldn't be more pleased with the results.
My two favorite teams—USA by reason of birth [not hope that they could actually do well in the tournament] and England [for obvious reasons]—are in the same group! I don't think this has happened since 1950, when the US stunned the football world by beating England 1-0 in group play. Since I have been following international football, certainly, the only times I've seen them play each other was in friendlies that don't count for anything but bragging rights.
Now they'll be meeting on the biggest stage. And it's the first game of the group, too! What fun!But, who to root for? Of course, I can't root for my country to lose, but it would feel very strange to root against England*. A tie, at this point in the tournament, would be most acceptable. It wouldn't keep either team from advancing, at least we wouldn't know at the time that it wouldn't, and it would actually be a good result for the USA, playing powerhouse England evenly.
Further along the line, when places in the group are being determined, though, things might get sticky. What if, in order for the US to advance, England has to lose to one of the other Group C members? Or vice versa? Now that will give me problems.
*Why the cross of St. George instead of the Union Jack, you might ask? I'm so glad you did because it's one of my favorite examples of sports geography trivia.
In the top-level football world, there is no United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, rather separate "countries" of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This arrangement, which gives the UK as a whole a great deal more power within soccer politics than it would as a single country, is considered to be, I assume, a reward for having invented the sport in the first place and for having spread it all around the world with its once quite-extensive empire.There are periodically discussions about fielding an all-UK team, for example in the Olympics, but the entrenched power of the individual FA's (Football Associations) for these separate "countries" would never allow consolidation on the level of "real" football. Besides, I think it's kind of cool.
2 comments:
That is an easy question for me... I'm rooting for South Africa and anyone playing against England!!! I've always been like that since the English cricket team got caught cheating against us in 1995!! I consider England to be my home in so many ways but I am a true Southern Hemisphere girl when it comes to choosing national teams. I also might be the only South African on earth who roots for Australian rugby and cricket too, if they're not playing us!
I think of you whenever the World Cup comes up because of your homeland. At one time we had talked about going over there for the tournament but price and logistics work against it. We'll enjoy the games on tv instead.
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