So at the tutoring center I work at, we work w/ K-12 students, and quite a few of the middle & high school kids have been talking about the World Cup as if it were something they actually paid attention to, even if they didn't treat it like the Super Bowl. Sure, there are several first-generation immigrants from Mexico and Iran cheering on their home team, but even a fair amount of those who have no dog in the fight -- even ordinary white kids -- have been talking about it. Who knows if it'll catch on or not. I doubt it: even if interesting enough now, no American sports channels feature soccer as prominently as native sports. I remember feeling the same way in 2002 -- since we got so far, we actually took notice and thought soccer was cool for awhile... and then when there was no chance to wach it anymore, we stopped caring.
Who should I cheer on? Allowing good ol'-fashioned ethnic chauvinism to be my guide, I'd have to go w/ France, as I'm 1/4. I'm also 1/4 each of Welsh & Irish, who don't have a team (England doesn't count), and 1/4 Japanese, but they're already out. I mean, all France has to do is make it through Brazil!
As a sidenote, I really don't enjoy soccer that much. I'm much more into Mixed Martial Arts -- they're the only sport I don't find mind-numbingly boring (and they require some degree of brains). Basketball & soccer are fast-paced, but to me it looks like back-and-forth over and over from one end of the field to the other. Football & baseball feature interesting variety -- when there's anything going on at all. They're the athletic version of punctuated equilibrium.
It's likely that many of the kids in the tutoring center played soccer when they were younger and still have some lingering interest in the sport. It would not surprise me at all if the middle school kids, whose playing days were more recent, have more interest than the high schoolers, who outgrew soccer more years in the past.
ReplyDeletePeter
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