WORLD CUP FEVER

      JULY 8, 2014

      Well it looks like I'm gonna shoot for a new post once a month.  Can't say this is ideal, but I suppose it's better than new posts once every three months.  I really should be posting once a week but apparently I'm lazy.  Or boring.  Probably some combination of both at the moment (at least as it relates to non-acting/writing things).  Nevertheless, I'm feeling rather productive on this Tuesday so here we are.

      The topic of the day?  THE WORLD CUP!!  Having lived in NYC for 13 years this August (note to self: that should be a future blog post), this is actually the 4th World Cup I've witnessed as an "adult." Summer of '02, I was actually at my parents house most of that month recovering from shoulder surgery.  In '06, I was in my retail heyday and I remember following it pretty closely but not with the fervor of the last two.  Although '06 was fun because I'd take my lunch breaks at an Irish bar down the street from my store and would watch all the games there.  '10 was fun because the USA was in the same group as England.  I was doing a production of Richard III and at that point in my life I had made some friends who were Brits living in the states.  Naturally I wanted to watch the USA/England group stage game with all of them and I remember being crammed into a bar with several friends watching what turned out to be a 1-1 draw.

      So going into this World Cup, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Happily it became more fun than any of the previous three.  My friend Carson plays co-ed soccer here in the city and turned all the USA games into big parties for her and her teammates.  She very graciously allowed me to join in the festivities and I'm so thankful to her for that.  As it turns out, Game 1 (the 2-1 victory over Ghana), I watched on the roof of a local concert venue with Carson's British boyfriend (Carson was stuck at work).  Aside from having somebody who understands the game very well to chat with, I was struck by how many people actually showed up.  The roof was packed and everywhere you looked were tons and tons of USA jerseys, scarves, and team memorabilia. Naturally, when John Anthony Brooks scored the late game-winner the place went nuts.  It was thrilling and exciting and it was only the beginning.

      Thankfully Carson made it to game 2 against Portugal.  Our group was at a bar on the Lower East Side and again it was wall to wall USA jerseys.  That game was something to behold.  Portugal got the early lead and things didn't look good.  But when Jermaine Jones fired that incredible goal to tie, the place came alive and was locked in for the final 20 minutes.  When Captain America Clint Dempsey scored goal #2 (off his midsection/crotch area) the place went crazier than the roof during Game 1.  I've watched many sporting events at bars here in New York and Dempsey's equalizer was one of the loudest responses I've ever heard.  Game 3 against Germany was a little less exciting (thanks to the 1-0 defeat) but the bar where our group was watching was on pins & needles the entire time.  Rare to hear a sports bar so quiet but it showed just how intense the game was and how into it all of the patrons were.  

      I ended up watching the last game against Belgium with a different group of friends but also at a bar that was much bigger.  I was surprised by how packed the place was (on a Tuesday at 4pm no less).  Besides all the soccer gear, there were men in military uniforms, guys in dress clothes having just come from the office, and plenty of women in dresses who also had just come from the office (a surprising # of the dresses were even red & blue).  The game was tight and despite the heroics of Tim Howard (who should really just change his name to Tim Motherf*cking Howard), the USA was eliminated.  Belgium's team is too deep and too talented and though Julian Green scored a STUNNING late goal, the Belgians deserved the win.  

      There are many other websites to go to that will provide all sorts of analysis about what went wrong and who deserves the blame and what the future of the USMNT is moving forward. But what I wanna touch on is something that really struck me over the last several weeks. Soccer or Football (whichever name you prefer) is nicknamed "The Beautiful Game."  While that usually refers to the way it looks when it's played at it's highest level, for me it has a different meaning.  I began to get a sense of this in '06, and again in '10, but one of my favorite things about living in NYC is what happens to the city during a World Cup.  Every bodega, every restaurant, every public place with a TV set always show the games.  And depending where you go, you might sit next to someone from Uruguay or Columbia or the Netherlands or Germany who all just happen to be in NYC and wanna watch their team play.  Maybe they're employees, maybe they're tourists, but they're all sitting together watching.  

      And to me, that's what makes it "The Beautiful Game."  People that have no way to communicate with each other through language can sit and watch 22 men on a soccer field try and bring glory to their home countries on the biggest stage of them all.  They're there for every shot, every goal, every corner kick, every save.  They don't miss a minute.  That's a truly unique and beautiful thing and for my money something you can only really experience in a big city like NYC.  You can walk down just about any street in Manhattan during the games and place after place after place has the game on and is full of patrons watching intently for those couple hours.

      I've been a huge football fan myself for many years so I've always supported the USMNT.  But the thing I loved most about this World Cup was seeing how huge the USA games became. This city went nuts for this team.  There were watching parties in Brooklyn under the Manhattan Bridge, in Madison Square park, on the roofs of concert venues.  Offices gave their employees an extra hour for lunch during USA games.  Hell some offices even catered lunch and rolled in TV's all so their employees could watch the games together.  That's a beautiful thing. Not only that, but everywhere you looked you saw people wearing USA jerseys.  I was blown away by the level of support that this city (and based on the TV #'s that have come in, this country) showed our boys.  It's truly exciting to be in a bar full of a couple hundred people and you're all rooting for the same team.  That never happens in any other sport and so when the US scores it's an incredible feeling.  This is what other countries have known for YEARS and thankfully we are finally embracing that.  

      What this World Cup showed us is that people love gathering together to cheer on the same team.  Whether you're from Philly or New York or Chicago or LA, you can all stand in a bar and cheer on the US Men's Soccer team TOGETHER.   The tricky part now is maintaining this for the next 4 years. Hopefully there are some kids out there who just saw what our boys did and now maybe wanna keep playing soccer instead of switching to football or baseball.  Don't get me wrong, I love those sports.  But if even a few kids switch their allegiance to soccer, there's no telling how far our boys can go in the future.  Along those lines, it's not as though there won't be opportunities to cheer our national team again over the next few years.  We have the Women's World Cup next summer,  2 Gold Cups, the Copa America, and World Cup qualifying all coming up before the 2018 World Cup in Russia.  

      I've had so much fun watching the World Cup the last few weeks & been even more overjoyed with the love and support our country has shown our team.  Despite the mess that is our government, this country is at it's best when we have common goals and common ideals. Yeah, sure, it's only a game but that shouldn't lessen the importance or the achievement of what we just witnessed.  Here's hoping that some of the folks down in DC were actually paying attention over the last few weeks and not just as some stupid PR stunt.  For all our faults, this country is ready to believe in itself again.  If the politicians listen closely enough & actually do something about it, maybe someday soon they'll be the ones we cheer just as much as John Anthony Brooks, Jermaine Jones, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard.

#IBelieve

-SDR