Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
I hope you are enjoying the World Cup matches as much as I am.
Your response might be something like “I hate soccer” or “I don’t get soccer” or “soccer is boring.”
And, because this is America, you have the right to feel the way you do and express it.
But the beauty of this World Cup is that you don’t have to appreciate the game to understand what is happening in our country right now.
It is, frankly, bigger than sports.
People from across the globe have come to the United States of America to watch their favorite team play, and they brought their social media accounts with them.
And from their social media outlets, these fans from all corners of the Earth are sharing their experiences. And under any way of measuring it, our visitors are really enjoying their stay here.
It should make us, as Americans, proud.
Here’s the really interesting part: many of the people who are posting pictures and comments on their visits to our country are expressing surprise.
They are surprised at what they are finding here, and who they are finding here.
They are enjoying themselves here.
They are having fun here.
They are enjoying meeting us and spending time with us and letting us show off our country.
They are writing about and posting pictures of the wide variety of food and entertainment they have found here.
They are in awe of the scenery and the beauty of this land we call home.
The truth is, they are enjoying all the things that we have taken for granted.
These visitors to our shores were expecting mean-spirited, unfriendly people here because that’s the message they get from the media in their own country and from the media in ours.
Regardless of your politics or world view, you can understand why people from outside the US would have a negative preconceived notion of what they will find here.
Like him or not, our president is a lightning rod for criticism and controversy. When people see him they think every person in America is like him.
That’s not the case.
So, when people come here expecting the worst from the everyday American citizen, and they get the opposite, it is a wonderful surprise to them.
That’s good for everyone…well almost everyone.
There people who hate America as it’s been constituted. Some of them live here. I don’t get them, but these “Debbie Downers” poo-poo all that’s great here and are actively downplaying the impact of this tournament on the world.
What we have learned from the people who have come here to enjoy the World Cup is that they would be happy to replace any celebrities who have declared that they would rather live somewhere else.
Other takeaways from the World Cup so far:
I was involved in a conversation about how American athletes in other sports would fare in soccer.
It was suggested that some of our best NBA players would be good at soccer—which is just ludicrous!
The skill of dribbling the ball, passing the ball, stopping the ball and not using your hands to do any of it is not something you just decide to be good at one day. To reach any sort of level of success in this sport, a person needs to start kicking a ball when they are little—we’re talking under 8 years old.
The only thing our NBA stars would succeed at would be flailing around and pretending to be fouled.
I am sad that Chicago is not included in this world festival.
How does the third largest city in the US not get at least a game or two?
Simple: the stadium.
Soldier Field’s turf is notoriously bad. NFL football players don’t want to play on it, so why would the largest sporting event in the world want to put its teams on it?
They don’t.
Maybe when the World Cup comes around to North America again, the new domed stadium in Chicagoland will be ready to host. Of course, it will be about 30 years before the World Cup is here again, so there are no guarantees that the Bears will have decided where they are going to build.
And one last thing: the studio hosts for Fox Sports on their broadcasts have not really helped Americans learn the game.
Most of the analysts are former players from other countries, and their accents are so thick that it’s often hard to understand them.
Outside of that, it’s been a wonderful start to this tournament, and I am excited about where it goes from here.
