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Saturday, June 24. 2006
State Department Uses the World Cup to Improve U.S. Image
Posted by Joerg Wolf in Transatlantic Relations on Saturday, June 24. 2006
From the United States Mission to Germany:
The obviously wrong image in the U.S. of soccer being a girlie sport is declining, man's soccer is increasingly popular in the U.S., and large numbers of Americans traveled to Germany. J of Germany Doesn't Suck took the photograph below and kindly allowed the Atlantic Review to use it.
There is a slight difference in the official English World Cup theme A Time to Make Friends and the German version Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden, which translates as "The World Is Visiting Friends", but both slogans turned out to be true. The World Cup is a peaceful, friendly mega party for millions of fans from around the world. There is much much less racism, violence, prostitution and sex trafficking than some Americans and others expected. Republican Congressman Christopher Smith's predictions turned out to be wrong. He should note that prostitutes complain about the lack of customers. Soccer fans are too busy celebrating. Let's hope that the next two weeks will be as successful as the first two and that we will continue to see more of the following joyful pictures, while not forgetting the refugees:
A delegation of 30 young soccer players participating in the World Cup Sports Initiative organized by the U.S. State Department will travel to Germany June 21-23 to attend the FIFA World Cup match between Ghana and the United States and engage in program activities in Nuremberg and Frankfurt (Main). The boys and girls, ages 13-18, represent the following 13 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bolivia, China, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes will join the young soccer players in Nuremberg to attend the Ghana-USA game on June 22.The U.S. lost its last World Cup game against Ghana a few hours ago. The U.S. game against Italy ended in a draw, which has been a remarkable achievement. Before that game the Chicago Tribune wrote that one player of the US national soccer team made some stupid remarks that will not improve the US image:
Eddie Johnson says he sees similarities between his team and the soldiers he will be surrounded by when the United States stays in the Ramstein Air Base for Saturday's match against Italy in Kaiserslautern. "It's like us in the World Cup," the 22-year-old Johnson told reporters in Hamburg. "We're here for war. We came here to battle. We came here to represent our country. Whenever you put your jersey on and you look at your crest and the national anthem's going on, and you're playing against a different country, it's like you do or die, it's survival of the [fittest] over 90 minutes-plus."Fortunately the German press -- which many consider biased against the U.S. -- did not use these unsportsmanlike and for the U.S. team untypical comments to reinforce Anti-American stereotypes, i.e. our media is not so bad. Unfortunately one Italian player apparently took those comments seriously and hit U.S. player Brian McBride and caused a "cascade of blood" to flow down his face. The Italian player was promptly set off by the referee. All other games have been much more fair and less violent.
The obviously wrong image in the U.S. of soccer being a girlie sport is declining, man's soccer is increasingly popular in the U.S., and large numbers of Americans traveled to Germany. J of Germany Doesn't Suck took the photograph below and kindly allowed the Atlantic Review to use it.
Creative Commons licensed pictures:
From: Adrian Christopher Koss
From: agu2000_de
From: Brendio
Check out J's blog Germany Doesn't Suck for his comments on life in Germany as an American expat in general and for more pictures from the World Cup in particular.
Despite all the partying, let us not forget the less fortunate. June 20th was World Refugee Day.
Despite all the partying, let us not forget the less fortunate. June 20th was World Refugee Day.
From: Boyznberry
UPDATE: US soccer player Eddie Johnson's comments apparently received more coverage in the U.S. than in Germany. The Nation writes about his bellicose postering mentioned above and opines:
More than half a century ago, Dwight Eisenhower famously said, "The true mission of American sports is to prepare young men for war." This is the undeniable downside of sports: the way teamwork, camaraderie and competition can be used to desensitize a population to the horrors of war. And it is particularly part of the sporting DNA of what Americans call football, where games are routinely referred to as "battles" or "wars," and NFL quarterbacks are "field generals" who throw bullet passes and bombs for the purpose of advancing on enemy territory. (...)
The World Cup has historically aimed to be a counterweight to the passions of war. But Johnson's comments are consistent with the militaristic spirit that some US fans have brought to the games. Without question, England, Poland, Germany and other teams have their share of fringe hooligans, some openly racist. But Team USA's most prominent fan club calls itself "Sam's Army." While the fan club explicitly rejects racism and soccer hooliganism, its website is replete with martial imagery and belligerent anthems.
Johnson's comments illuminate a crucial difference between how Americans and Europeans think about war--and sport. Europeans are not quite so blithe on these matters, having seen the continent decimated twice in the past century by war. It is not surprising that a number of Italian players were alternately bemused and repulsed by Johnson's war talk.
Other players in this tournament have painful contemporary reasons to think about war as something other than a game, particularly the impressive teams from the African continent. Ivory Coast has been wracked by civil war since 2002, and thousands of its 17 million citizens have perished. The Elephants, as the team is called, consists of players from all parts of the country, and is seen by many Ivorians as a unifying force.
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So, let’s add this up. American A says something Euro disapproves of, so he commits assault-and-battery on American B’ s face with a vicious elbow during the game. And WHO has damaged the image of their country? The AMERICAN! Not the EUROPEAN! I beg your pardon! Comments ()
Tracked: Jun 25, 08:55
October 3rd is German Unity Day. It has been often said that there would be less Anti-Americanism in Germany, if Germans would be more patriotic. Anti-Americanism has been described as:inverted nationalism for people who think nationalism isn't cool. (thi Comments ()
Tracked: Oct 03, 16:07
;-) Slate Magazine: According to my research, "football" is very popular among my fellow Americans. It sort of resembles chess, but with a lot more physical contact. Today is, like, the biggest day of the year for football enthusiasts.American Comments ()
Tracked: Feb 04, 14:20