What I’m Reading: July 15, 2007
Some guy named David Beckham officially joined the LA Galaxy. I’m so fed up with the excessive coverage already (you’d think this Beckham chap was the only person playing soccer in the US) and so am going to limit my discussion of this event (if you really want to read about Mr. Posh Spice, check out Grant Wahl’s Sports Illustrated cover story as well as his article discussing the Latino response to his arrival).
To me, the most interesting thing about Beckham’s presentation ceremony is that LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa showed up and got booed. Why would Angelinos boo their own mayor? Well, it turns out that Villaraigosa is a fan of LA’s other team, Chivas USA.
Two teams, two female companions, what’s the problem? (Credit: Andrea Canales / Sideline Views Blog)
According to Andrea Canales, when Chivas USA began its life in 2005 Villaraigosa declared them “LA’s team” despite the fact that the Galaxy had been around since 1996. Galaxy fans, rightly it would seem, saw Villaraigosa’s appearance at the press conference as “riding the coattails of the team’s big moment when he doesn’t support them.” The mayor, who recently announced that he is divorcing his wife of over 20 years and has a relationship with a news reporter who (conveniently) broke the story of his divorce, was asked by one fan, “Is your girlfriend here?”
One other American story: The Dallas Morning News has an interesting story about the local team, FC Dallas, struggling to attract Hispanic fans. The obvious solution is to sign a marquee Hispanic player (see Cuauhtemoc Blanco), but the team is attempting to balance potential signings’ marketing potential with what they might actually add on the field.
Iraq is suffering back home, with countless bombings each day killing scores of innocent people. But their national team beat Australia in the Asian Cup. Iraq has a good soccer pedigree, but one would forgive them for not doing well in this year’s tournament, given the situation in their country. For whatever reason, the team has been able to block out all of the horrors occurring at home and beat one of the pre-tournament favorites. How do you say congratulations in Arabic?
Iraqi players celebrate their victory over the Aussies
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off a so-called Integration Summit on Thursday with a match between Christian priests and Sunni Muslim clerics in Berlin. Roger Boyes writes in the Times:
The Clash of Civilisations ended at the weekend with the Christians thrashing the Muslims by six goals to two. While religious extremists set off bombs across the world, Berlin decided to settle the matter on the football field: ordained priests shed their cassocks and outplayed a team of unhappy-looking Sunni clerics. Boys from the Jewish community acted as linesmen and even the professional referee looked like a grey-bearded Old Testament prophet.
The match was played in a spirit of tolerance (Boyes writes that “[t]he first Muslim goal was a dubious affair that seems to have been allowed purely as an ecumenical gesture”), but was not without difficulties. One of the organizers said, “It was a problem finding an appropriate day for the match. Friday is out for the Muslims, Saturday is out for the rabbis and we’re rather busy on Sundays.”
I have to admit, I haven’t read it yet, but the Vanity Fair piece on Didier Drogba and his role in bringing peace to Ivory Coast looks fascinating.
The Copa America is due to wrap up later today with a classic final between Argentina and Brazil. And while the tournament will soon be over, it may spur greater long-term interest in soccer in Venezuela. Andrew Downie writes at the Christian Science Monitor this week about how the Venezuelan national team (the vino tinto) has earned respect and promoted interest in soccer in the country, long a bastion of baseball. It’s always struck me as a bit odd that the two most Anti-American countries in Latin America (Venezuela and Cuba) are unabashed baseball fanatics.
Venezuelan fans at this year’s Copa America
The Monitor also has a short note of interest about the Argentina vs. Colombia match, or more specifically the protests during the game:
Andrew was surprised to hear fans chanting against President Hugo Chávez. “Many fans sang ‘This government is going to fall,’ ” says Andrew. In response, Venezuelan officials tried to divert attention by shooting off fireworks, then by appealing for the Mexican Wave on the electronic scoreboard. “When that didn’t work, they broadcast static on the PA system to drown out the protests,” he says. Finally, Argentina scored a goal and that diverted attention back to the game.
Finally, the most interesting story of the week was about a tournament in Norway of the indigenous Nordic tribe called the Sami. They are spread across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia and people from all players countries attended the recent tournament that Steve Menary covered for the Guardian. One team was called the Karasjok Reindeer Herders Assocation, but lest you think there are no good Sami players, Menary points out that Blackburn Rovers winger Morten Gamst Pedersen is a member of this ethnic group (he, unfortunately, had other engagements and couldn’t attend the Sami Cup). Menary also has a book coming out soon called Outcasts!: The Lands that FIFA Forgot, about “national teams,” like that of the Samis, that don’t really exist.
A member of the Sami Nordic tribe (and a reindeer)
Some quick hits to finish off:
- The Global Game blog discusses Soccer in the Streets, a grassroots program to bring soccer to the inner-city in Atlanta. They also have a podcast with the executive director of the program and one player.
- The blog Soccernista asks whether the best American athletes are going into soccer and whether we would be better off if they were.
- Luton Town arranged a friendly with a team in the Turkish-controlled part of Cyprus, which caused a diplomatic incident. From The Offside.
- And the blog 200 Percent has a great piece on football economics. The author writes that “The thing about football’s version of free market is this - they reap all the advantages of the free market, suffer very few of the pressures of it, yet still manage, somehow, to make a complete hash of being economically successful.”
