Here at Kwaitoball, we're nothing if not inclusive. So when England drew the United States of America in the draw for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, we began the hunt for a patriotic, football crazy yank to provide some insight and opinions from the other side of the pond. Meet Ulysses S. Adams, y'all. (No, it's not me.)
From this end, six months seems like a very long time.
It's not, of course, because by the time that period has passed, I'm always left wondering where all the time went.
But it's impossible to not be impatient, with arguably the most important match in the history of American soccer (or football, you wankers) just that epically long but oh-so-short interim away.
There's no hyperbole there; the United States facing off against England to kick off the 2010 World Cup campaign is by every measure applicable the most important match in the history of our nascent presence in international competition. We've only really been "trying" for twenty-five to thirty years (it depends on who you ask just which one is more accurate), and in that time we've taken massive strides towards respectability. Sure, our performances in the tournament have been alternately solid and disastrous, frustrating those of us emotionally invested in American success, but if the pattern holds, 2010 should be on the upside of that pattern. Because of that see-saw history, and because club soccer (or football, you wankers) is only now beginning to possibly catch a hint of the edge of the of the American public's eternally fickle attention, playing England will be a turning point in the sports fortunes here.
Notice I wrote "will be" rather than "could be". That's because it almost doesn't matter the result of the match from a "state of the game" standpoint; the Americans, as long as they're competitive and don't rollover for the funny-talking cousins, will do more for the sport's profile in the States simply by taking the field than anything else ever has.
Okay, so maybe that last part is a touch hyperbolic. Without everything that came before, starting with Paul Caligiuri's dipping goal from distance to defeat Trinidad & Tobago and send the US to Italy '90 and continuing through to this past summer's Jekyll & Hyde (thank god the Jekyll part came second) performance at the Confederations Cup, the game against England might not mean so much. But it's almost a certainty that the match will garner the highest television ratings ever for the sport in the United States, and probably do so by a significant margin. It's on network television, on a Saturday afternoon, and features the good old Red, White, and Blue against the country's colonial forerunners. There's not much that we Americans don't do as well as the English, and so any opportunity to establish ourselves as worth competitors on the pitch is one to savor.
There are too many storylines and angles to outline them all here, but the bottom line is that the dynamic, especially from a soccer (or football, you wankers) standpoint, is beyond complicated; too many Americans, as passionate and knowledgeable about the game as anyone from the Old Coutnry, remain in possession of a serious inferiority complex. Maybe it's too many ex pats in the media (suck it, Cohen), or the simple fact that we share a common language with the nation that originated the game, meaning we're able to understand the disdain with which our attempts to play the game are viewed. Either way, it's tiresome and painful to have so many here discount American efforts because, well, they're American.
June 12th represents many things, both for the future of the sport in the United States as well as the quality of the players we produce. The US will be given little chance to beat Capello's boys (an Italian? Really? Were there no good English managers available? Sorry, bad question...), but there's no doubt that the Americans are not pushovers. I'm fairly certain it will take England's best effort to beat us, and that's enough to make me smile, even as every fiber of my being screams out for a victory. Belo Horzonte redux would be perfectly fine, thank you very much.
But if nothing else, opening the World Cup with England gives the United States a chance to exhibit itself on the world stage against the highest of profile teams. That matters not only for our confidence, or for our place in the international pecking order (or for the reputation of our players for that matter), but for the people in this country, the ones so staunchly opposed to letting soccer (or football, you wankers) into their sporting lives; win, lose, or draw, the game with be a grand spectacle, with more impact on the perception of soccer and depth of its cultural penetration than any match before it.
Don't even get me started on what it might be like if we actually win...
And now I'm in a full on frenzy. Six months is an awfully long time.
(Pic via
Dances with Shadows)
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