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July 09, 2006
Footie and Football
The World Cup is over.
Two teams, representing two countries, battled it out in a third.
One won, and went home victor. The other went home vanquished.
All in all, it was a great contest--in my view, much better, much more exciting, than the Super Bowl. And I've been trying to figure out exactly why that is.
I know it's not that either football or footie is a better game. They're both fun to watch and to play.
The degree of commercialism that's overtaken football may be part of it, but I can't blame it on marketing, overblown half-time shows, or obscene salaries.
The only thing I can come up with is that there's an element of proud nationalism to soccer that's missing from football. When Germany hosts France and Italy, it's hard not to think about the history they share, for better and worse.
But say there's a big game in New Orleans between a couple of teams with city names attached. In the first place, all the cities that send players into football's ritualized mock-combat are from states that belong to the same Union. Hard to get too excited about that--again, at least for me.
How about you?
Posted by davidkippen at July 9, 2006 11:27 PM
Comments
I agree. Somehow soccer brings a country together...it is the ultimate marketing! It brings community, dreams, aspirations,branding together. Soccer is still about nationalism. In a global world I believe people enjoy that they can legitimately support their nation. Maybe it is to do with Europe and their chequered history with battles and wars between nations.
Posted by: Anna Farmery at July 11, 2006 08:50 AM
Anna,
You know, I didn't think of it quite that way but you're absolutely right. There's something very attractive about aspirational support for your nation--head-butting notwithstanding!
Posted by: David Kippen at July 12, 2006 04:04 PM