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On the Road ... Tour de France
Monday, July 03, 2006
We call it soccer
Believe it or not, they call it soccer in Europe, too.
Granted, most countries do, in fact, call it football (or something that sounds the same but is spelled differently). The widely held belief that the United States is the lone "soccer" nation just isn't true, though. I spent the last week in Ireland where they do have a sport called football, but it's a Gaelic sport that is most easily described as a cross between soccer and rugby. The day we left, in fact, was the semifinals of the nation-wide tournament that pits the counties against one another. More than 80,000 people pack Dublin's stadium for the event. During the course of the World Cup, I have discovered there are several nations that prefer to use the term "soccer" over "football." Australia calls it soccer for essentially the same reason that the U.S. and Ireland do -- they have another sport they call football. Japan, apparently, calls it soccer, too, although I suspect that is because Americans introduced them to the sport. But that's pure speculation. My point is we really should stop the hand-wringing over our penchant for calling it soccer. One of the classic cliches is to drop a "futbol" into a story about soccer, and there's really no good reason. What we do need, on the other hand, is a good nickname. Some countries use colors like France is "Les Bleus," Mexico is "Tres colores," Italy is "Azzurri." Other countries go with animals such as England and their Three Lions. I wouldn't suggest the same route as Australia's Socceroos, but at least it's something. Not as important as finding a new midfielder -- Claudia Reyna has almost certainly played in his last Cup -- but still pressing is coming up with our own nickname that screams to the world "We are a serious soccer nation." According to Wikipedia, we actually have some nicknames -- the online encyclopedia lists "Yanks," "Stars and Stripes" and "Red, White and Blue" as already existing nicknames. I'm fine with any of those, but someone needs to at least get the word out to the national media and whoever is marketing the team. posted by FreeSanJose at 9:33 AM  
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