Question for OTAs

[Bozo Erectus]

(OTA = Other Than American)

Can you name one thing about your country that gets you as excited, charged and emotionally pumped up, as its soccer/football team does?

 

[Mathilda]

That's not even difficult, as Finland absolutely sucks at football.
So I'll go with the ice hockey team.

 

[classical_hero]

Cricket, Aussie Rules, Rugby Union, Rugby League.

 

[Nobody]

The rugby world cup, the americas cup yatching, to a lesser degree cricket. Or anything at all competing against australia

I would watch grass grow if it was against australia "Grow you good thing GROW!"

oh other than sports: being Nuclear Free and french terrorists and apathied rugby teams. To a lesser extent maori land claims and whaling.

But beyond everything else its rugby. It was been proven (although i cant prove it right now) that during a election year if the All Blacks win then the incumbent party generally does as well.

 

[Grisu]

hockey (ice-hockey even, to honour the 10 chars

 

[ComradeDavo]

Music Festivals.

Britain has a couple of really amazing music festivals (I speak of Reading and Download). Not quite the same, but I get very exicted about them!

Oh and general elections of course! Those I get emotionally charged about.

So yeah...music and politics.

 

[Marshy]

Or anything at all competing against australia

I would watch grass grow if it was against australia "Grow you good thing GROW!"

What is about the Aussie sports teams that brings out the hatred in us all? I actually cheered for England against the Aussies in the Rugby World Cup which for an Irishman is like cheering for Satan
To address the question in the first post, Rugby Union gets me frothing at the mouth, probably even more than soccer. In particular the 6 nations matches.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

(OTA = Other Than American)

Can you name one thing about your country that gets you as excited, charged and emotionally pumped up, as its soccer/football team does?

I can see the point you are trying to get at Bozo and the answer is pretty much nothing. The English will suddenly become supporters and "emotionally pumped up" about any sport which we are good at, inc curling , but none quite the same as football.

But then nationalistic hysteria is harder to come by in Europe. There is a raise in the level of nationalism when we go to war but nothing that compares to the flag flying during the world cup.

Cricket, Aussie Rules, Rugby Union, Rugby League.

I can't get pumped up watching any of these when we play Australia. Simply because there is the gnaring certainty in the back of my mind that eventually Australia will win. Football on the other hand...

 

[Raisin Bran]

In canada its Hockey, In Quebec Hockey is a religion.

In our newspapers we get 10 to 20 pages of hockey when the season is started.

Canadian Football is our summer sport now in Montreal but it dosent get us worked up like hockey.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Its always amazed me how much people around the world love soccer. Here in the US, sports are huge, but even during the World Series (baseball) and the Superbowl (football), the vast majority of people are not watching the games, and dont care all that much either way. From here, it seems like every single person in a country is glued to their TV sets when theres a match. In Columbia, players whove made mistakes have actually been killed in retaliation by angry fans. A few years ago on TV I saw a group of guys hugging each other and bawling their eyes out because their team had lost a soccer game. It'll be forever seared in my mind, along with the Python bit about the soccer players running towards each other in slow motion and then making out, because they scored a goal

 

[Grisu]

Its always amazed me how much people around the world love soccer. Here in the US, sports are huge, but even during the World Series (baseball) and the Superbowl (football), the vast majority of people are not watching the games, and dont care all that much either way.

one difference here is probably that in the football WC there's countries playing each other, while the world series and superbowl are "just" club teams. there just isn't an automatic allegiance towards a club team depending on the place you were born/live like there is with national teams, IMHO.

but just imagine if the rest of the world was acutally any good at american football, and there was a world championship with national teams. don't you think that a lot more people would be watching the games, cheering the US teams?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

one difference here is probably that in the football WC there's countries playing each other, while the world series and superbowl are "just" club teams. there just isn't an automatic allegiance towards a club team depending on the place you were born/live like there is with national teams, IMHO.

but just imagine if the rest of the world was acutally any good at american football, and there was a world championship with national teams. don't you think that a lot more people would be watching the games, cheering the US teams?

Thats an excellent point. Maybe that'll be the case when the World Series becomes international, which seems to be in the works.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

In Columbia, players whove made mistakes have actually been killed in retaliation by angry fans.

If you are talking about Paula Escobar, IIRC that was his name, he was killed by gangsters who lost money on the game.

But yes, David Beckham and others have recieved death threats after making fatal errors leading to defeats. Some fans are idiots.

 

[col]

. Some people think football is a matter of life and death. They are wrong. Its more important than that.

Famous manager of Liverpool FC

 

[Bozo Erectus]

If you are talking about Paula Escobar, IIRC that was his name, he was killed by gangsters who lost money on the game.

But yes, David Beckham and others have recieved death threats after making fatal errors leading to defeats. Some fans are idiots.

Its insane. Barry Bonds (baseball player) has to be the most unpopular player in American sports at the moment, but as far as I know, nobody has threatened to kill him yet.

 

[MamboJoel]

- Rugby (we won in South Africa last saturday : 26-36 ! )
- Presidential elections

BTW : "OTA" is a bit rude you OTOTA

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Sorry about that, I got it off the US Immigration Service. They officially refer to non Mexicans who cross the border as 'OTMs'. One time here I referred to people from the 'ROTW' and everybody was like 'Huh? Wha? ROTW?? What are you talking about??'

 

[GinandTonic]

In England there used to be lots of rituals of cultural membership, now no-one flies a union jack, no one listens to the queen's speach etc etc. The only unifing ritual of cultural membership is the national team.

The superbowl and the world series are like the champions league - important and quite a lot of people who dont usually watch sport will tune in but on a whole different level.

Music festivals as mentioned are important but only bond sub-cultures. Glasto, the big chill, download, lost vagueness all act as rituals of cultural membership but only to their own section of society.

Other sports dont really make the running - winning the Ashes (or beating the ozzies at sports they care more about than us) is nice and everyone watches a bit of wimbildon but the key problem is that most people dont really care about these sports, just wave the flag a bit and hope we do passibly.

So nothing raises the national blood in england like the national team because it is the only thing everyone is into, the only really national unifing event, the only time most of us would ever wave a flag and the only sport we are actually pretty good at. Not good enough to win, but good enough to break our hearts when we bomb out.

 

[Dell19]

On July 2, 1994, Escobar was gunned down outside a bar in a Medellín suburb. According to Escobar's girlfriend, the killer shouted "¡Gol!" (mimicking play-by-play men in the region for their notorious calls after a goal is scored) for each of the 12 bullets fired. Escobar had scored an own goal in a match against the United States on 22 June. Stretching to cut out a US cross, he deflected the ball into his own net in the second match of Group A. The USA won the game 2–1, and as a result, Colombia was unexpectedly dismissed from the tournament in the first round.

The murder was widely believed to be a punishment for the own goal.[1] It is not clear whether the murderer acted on his own initiative, or whether he was sent out by one of the gambling syndicates who had bet large amounts of money on Colombia to win the Cup, or at least qualify for the second round.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Gin in your opinion is that a good thing (that soccer is the only thing that unifies the people), a bad thing, or that it doesnt have a great deal of significance?