US-World Spirit

June 30th: Brazil!!! Brazil!!! ohhh Brazil!!

I don’t think any other single sport catches a country’s spirit than the FIFA World Cup. World Cup football is the most watched sport in global athletic competition “The 64 matches were watched by a total television audience estimated at 36 billion, an average of more than 550 million per game. The final alone attracted two billion viewers, roughly a third of the planet.” Brazil took this match up from Germany by a score of 2-0. The three R’s and most notably Ronaldo (scoring 12 goals, a tournament best) took the Brazilan team back to victory.

I watched what I could of the cup this year but being played in Korea it was a little touch to make those 3 am games. I did watch the final match up and was a lil disappointed in Kahn’s mistakes but the better team won this battle. I was very shocked at USA’s run at the title and at the same time disappointed in our country’s lack of support for the team. Both in public and via televised broadcast. This years coverage quite simply sucked. The commentators Jack Edwards and Ty Keough lack the ability to accurately call the strategy, play by play and even terminology of the sport. As one fello blogger put’s it:

A few of the terms/words I’d never before heard used during a game of football:

Generating some offense…
Climbing the ladder… (going up for a header)
Assists (this isn’t basketball/hockey)
Score! (again, this isn’t hockey)
Quinn, playing in the low post…
The red zone (presumably the 18 yard box)
PK (penalty kick, just call it a penalty please)
A foul called on X player (meaning X fouled Y instead of the other way around)

I must agree with many here that even the cutting off of the trophy ceremony was a discrace of the game. You know a network would never do this during the NBA or Super Bowl finals. Read more: The cup on ABC: Gotta Go!
And so where’s the face painted American’s, the red/white/blue fountains, the parties in the streets…huh? do we even care about global sports…humm…guess not…look at the week coverage of the Olympics….guess we’re too busy making money off the stock market…oop…

As far as spirt this is what I’m talking about:

World Cup Links
World Cup home page
Sport’s Illustrated World Cup Coverage
A Brief History of World cup