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World Cup Report: Whither Europe? and a New Germany

Through Sunday’s World Cup matches here are the records for each continent (W-L-T):

Asia 2-4-3

Africa 1-7-4

Europe 8-7-8

Americas 8-1-5

The hope was that two or even three African teams would make it to the Round of 16 on their home continent but Ghana looks to be the only side with a decent chance to advance and even that is not certain – we’ll find out on Tuesday.

The big news, though, is that Europe is barely above water against the rest of the world, and the nations performing well are for the most part the smaller countries (Slovenia, Denmark, Switzerland).  The great powers of the European Soccer Empire are mostly faltering.

Those of you following the drama of the World Cup as well as the action know that France is providing the center-stage soap opera.  The blog headline in this link is hilarious, like the front page of a newspaper on an historic day with more story developments than can fit.  How long before the first creative person assembles a montage of the team’s self-immolation to the lyrics of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”?

Across the Channel, England’s hopes for the second round are better but they still haven’t scored a goal and the same experts who predicted a romp through Group C are roasting their heroes like so many chestnuts. This cover from The Sun after the Group draw was announced is fun now.

Spain, picked by many to reach the final, lost its first match and Italy has had two uninspired draws, including one against 78th-ranked New Zealand, which is being treated as the biggest upset in the tournament so far.

Only the Netherlands has emerged from the first two matches unscathed. Germany, after a dominant first match, was beaten 1-0 by a Serbian squad that can be tough when it chooses. Still, the expectation is that the Germans will straighten themselves out.

Here is a link to a nice piece from an excellent source for tournament news, The Beautiful Blog from the San Francisco Chronicle. The post lists all of the German players whose family roots are from other countries.

World War II is still fairly recent in memory, because of the global scale, the extent of the horrors and the fact that the stories will always be re-told in this country because it is America’s greatest military triumph. In the Western narrative of the 20th century Germany is the great villain. Many will always see Germany solely through this part of its history. The mistrust and enmity often seems reflexive or hard-wired.

Having lived there there in the early 1990s, it was plain that the country was making an earnest and searching effort to deal with the truth, the responsibility and the shame of what happened. After the wall came down there was a regular national discourse about moving forward, how to find the right balance of past and future in national consciousness.

This list of German players is the opposite of the idea of racial purity, so seeing the post brought a smile.

FIFA is God at the World Cup

Much has already been written about the controversial call made by a referee in yesterday’s World Cup match between Slovenia and the United States. It is generally considered that the goal was improperly disallowed. Had the referee not blown his whistle, a United States second-half comeback which had already tied the match would have been historic instead of merely impressive.

In this interesting post at the NYT soccer blog Jeff Klein suggests that the referee, Koman Coulibaly from Mali – who just for spice’s sake was born on July 4th, America’s independence day – was making up for the call that led to the free kick in the first place. Jozy Altidore embellished some contact that the referee called a foul. Perhaps the referee blew his whistle, quickly came to regret his decision and then determined to reverse it. He therefore blew down the free kick very quickly and was counting on the likely result that no goal would be scored. Uh-oh.

If you make this tempest about the referee you are missing the point. Talking about the referee would be like Voltaire blaming the local priest for the Lisbon earthquake. First of all,  the idea of a referee being able to make two wrongs a right is appealing, especially in a game that is already more about guidelines than rules. Of course, no referee would say this.

In this case, the referee isn’t saying anything. According to the American players he wouldn’t explain his decision on the field. Perhaps his English wasn’t good enough. He hasn’t explained his decision afterward, nor is FIFA going to require him to do so, nor explain it themselves in his stead.

Basically, they are pretending that it didn’t happen. Here is an article about FIFA censoring all comments on its website about the decision. If there is a video of the play on FIFA’s it is hidden – the game highlights video skips over the event. Some are saying that FIFA is trying to pull down every unauthorized video of the play, displaying an aggressive protection of its copyright that has been otherwise absent during the World Cup.

FIFA clearly believes it must answer to no one. Fortunately ESPN isn’t joining FIFA’s censorship so you can keep up with the reactions there. Elsewhere, here is a fun post imagining a FIFA-like response by the IAEA, the organization responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear program. And this  is from the NYT game story by Jere Longman, who has been covering soccer for decades:

“In perhaps every other sport, an explanation of such a decisive play would have been provided. But Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, has ignored calls for video replay and has decided against putting additional referees on the end line. He has said that he likes the debate that follows matches, believing that uncertainty and subjectivity boost the sport.”

In a different context that perspective is interesting. It gives the impression that soccer is not really about a clear winner or loser, but is about the play itself, the discussion, the narrative of the game. This is an aspect of soccer that goes against American ideas about sport but it’s analogous to the difference between the U.S. idea of quantifiable results, especially money, before all else, including time, in contrast with a model in which the pleasures of  experience and time itself savored make for a better life. It is very cool that these differences can be demonstrated in how the sports are played.

The problem is that while Mr. Blatter’s explanation fits nicely within the ethics and aesthetics of world football it is not at all what motivates FIFA. For example, what you will find at FIFA  is a story about their rejection of Cristiano Ronaldo’s request to overturn a yellow card. Aparently FIFA isn’t averse to discussing its decisions when its infallibility can’t be seriously questioned.

All of this is a long prelude to an argument for why soccer will probably not adhere in the United States.  The international game is controlled by a political organization that is most interested in serving itself and preserving power, not in acting as agent or steward for the players, for the fans, or for the competition and integrity of the matches themselves.

A lot of yahoos here in the States say they don’t watch soccer because it’s a Communist sport, the most recent being a professional baseball player. Whether these individual comments are thoughtful or reactive, the yahoos are right. What they’re attacking is the monolithic, unquestionable authority of a central body. (I’m talking about international soccer, which is what we are exposed to in America. This is not about the various professional leagues in Europe and elsewhere). This attack is central to the American myth. It’s why we have a federal republic and a Constitution that provides for relatively strong states. It is why we have separation of powers.

Our powerful organizations tend to be corporations. In the world of sport these are owners, who are engaged in a constant struggle with the labor force. We’re used to that in this country – the battle between capital and labor has been long and often brutal. All American professional sports have had bitter labor disputes and work stoppages. We take sides based on a combination of a sense of what is fair as well as our own biases towards ownership or labor.

The leagues themselves certainly side with the owners but there are checks – they have to satsify the players and the fan base to some extent. They also feel obligated to explain themselves to the press and the public. Contrast this controversy with the recent baseball umpiring disaster by Tim Joyce, who destroyed a pitcher’s perfect game (a truly historic occasion in baseball) with a missed call on the last out.

The league said, admirably, that it could not reverse the decision on the field because it would destroy the integrity and authority of the officials, but expressed regret, acknowledged the error, and Joyce himself came out in the next game and stepped up, taking responsibility, apologizing and doing so in front of an appreciative audience, including the forgiving pitcher himself. What he did and what the game allowed or encouraged was a beautiful thing to see, sport living up to its highest obligation, which is to teach us lessons about life.

You can argue that the average fan doesn’t care about any of this. He doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to be a Constitutional scholar or a student of labor relations. The values bleed down into the everyday life of the game and people can tell when something smells bad even if they don’t know why. It’s like when people who know nothing about music composition still have a sense when an orchestra is not having a good night.

There is another consequence of FIFA’s totalitarianism. The first thing about world football that was confusing  when I began watching it in 1990 was the apparent lack of urgency near the end of a match when a team was trailing. Arms would be upturned, faces beeseching the heavens. Quotes after the matches were inevitably about fate.

This is another reason why soccer will not become America’s sport. We don’t believe in fate. We believe in destiny that we manifest for ourselves. Sport reminds us that it is up to each of us to overcome all obstacles – on the field it might be  injury, fatigue, superior opposition, the home crowd, or an unfair referee; and in life any disadvantages of birth, upbringing, education; financial distress, a stupid or venal boss, an uncaring employer, teenage children who will hate you for a few years, dying parents, wayward or indifferent spouses, the ravages of disease, the prospect of failure, the consequences of a horrible decision, the temptation of vices, the prospect of death.

American mythology teaches us that we must bust through all of this to achieve victory. We do not cede to fate. Sport reinforces this. Apparently it is not so with soccer. The story is foretold and the players and fans are merely actors who for the most part cannot re-write the script. Obviously this is an oversimplification and there is real competition and struggle on the pitch. But this relationship between individual will and what has been dictated from higher power is fundamentally different between American team sports and soccer.

Here’s another indication of how power resides in the FIFA office. There is a scenario in which the United States and England will finish group play tied in points and still ranked even after all tiebreakers. (Here is a NYT post on the history of the draw at the World Cup.) Can FIFA really not come up with another set of tiebreakers based on what happens on the field? Can a sixth-grade class not come up with an alternative? Award offensive effort by counting shots on goal. Award sportsmanship by referring to yellow/red cards and fouls. Anything, no matter how arbitrary, so long as it comes from the pitch, not from some absurd, unjustifiable ceremony in an office that reminds everyone who really has the power.

Emails and comments from the rest of the world in the last few days basically come down to this. “Stop complaining. Welcome to soccer.” That is a capitulation to authority which runs against American blood. Another worthy value, and American when it is at its best, is grace under adversity. I thought the reaction of the players and coach after the match was inspiring, as opposed to the reaction of all the people in the pub where I was watching.

For 20 years watching all these players look up at the sky, fall to their knees in prayer and supplication, mutter and beg….I thought they were talking to God. What is revealing about this controversy over the Slovenian – United States match is that the highest authority is actually FIFA.

Joy in the Mission As Mexico Beats France in the World Cup

Youth Day During South Africa’s World Cup

SF Spaniards Gather on Belden Place for World Cup

Head east down Bush Street from San Francisco’s Union Square and you will come across an alley called Belden Place, with maybe 10 restaurants on one block, most of them Mediterranean or seafood. Two of them are also a home base for World Cup soccer.

The French gather at Cafe Bastille while Spaniards congregate a few doors down, at B44. Spain is one of the favorites to win this year’s tournament and they had their first match this morning, against Switzerland. There were about 35 people watching the big screen, some of whom were rooting for the Swiss, which won the match in the biggest upset of the first week.

Food was tasty and everyone was cheerful and alert for 7 a.m., even with the loss and also considering the Spanish reputation for late-night living. A quick check of the schedule doesn’t reveal a single day in which more than one or two countries are represented by the restaurants on the block, so there is no opportunity to have an all-day all-you-can-watch soccer buffet. Maybe we’ll be lucky in 2014.

The Mission will be hopping tomorrow, with Mexico playing Group A favorite France at 11.30. If you can’t wait, or can’t sleep, the Mercury Lounge will show their beloved Argentina against South Korea at 4:30 a.m.

Horatius, San Francisco’s World Cup Host for Portugal

Horatius, in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill, is an art gallery, bistro, event space, wine bar and culinary specialty shop. It is also one of the few places in San Francisco open for the 4:30 a.m. matches from South Africa, and offers the biggest screen in the city on which to watch them.

Horacio Gomes, founder and CEO, has like others given us a gift by sharing his passion for soccer, especially the Portugese variety. This morning Portugal played its first match of the 2010 World Cup, against the Ivory Coast. The match started at 7 am but by halftime most of the seats were taken by a crowd that included at least a few fans of Cote d’Ivoire’s Elephants.

The space is more like a gallery than a bar or cafe, lit by candles on either side of the large screen. Folding chairs take up most of the floor and there are couches along the sides if you get there early enough. Farther back are tables where you can set up a laptop and  eat breakfast.

Though the match was scoreless it was entertaining, with much artistry, and the crowd appreciated the drama and flow. Here is a short tour of the space, followed by an interview with Horacio (his last name is pronounced GOMSH, not Gomez, as it was mangled in the video). He’ll be here every day, for every match. Come share a few.

World Cup in San Francisco’s North Beach

One of the joys of following the World Cup is indulging in national stereotypes. So it is that 18 seconds into their first match one of the Italian players is found writhing in pain on the grass, victim of a foul that in truth wouldn’t have knocked over a dizzy infant.

The Italian fans assembled at Steps of Rome understand this, offering their assessments of each player’s collapse not based on the seriousness of the contact but on the style of the fall and quality of the embellishment. Tormented facial expressions, upturned arms, pleadings to the heavens are all judged by the crowd.

Another stereotype – English fans show up in force hours before the match, like it’s an indoor tailgate party; German fans arrive appropriately early and in an orderly fashion. Steps of Rome, on the other hand, was still half-empty thirty minutes before the match began, with a massive influx of fans arriving just as the national anthems were being sung.

An Italian crowd it was, with at least 3/4 of the people singing the words, many decked in the side’s blue uniforms. Almost everyone within hearing distance (shortened, of course, by the vuvuzelas) was speaking Italian. A woman brought her mother to the match, who was the only person able to shame the tall guy in the gray t-shirt into sitting down so the people in the back could see.

Steps of Rome charged $5 to get in, but instead of offering a B-list beer one could also exchange their ticket for an espresso and croissant or a sizable and tasty panini. This happens when the culture values food more than beer (Germany) or besottedness (U.K.) and was most welcome after a weekend of 9 a.m. wheat beers and brown ales.

There’s also La Dolce Vita intermission (sorry for the generic titles – new software and too lazy to edit).

When Italy won the World Cup in 2006 North Beach was the focus of the celebration in the city. A walk up Columbus at halftime today showed a neighborhood completely attuned to the fact that a match was on. It wasn’t just a sports bar or two with some banners outside. The whole place was watching. Pantarei, just up the street from Steps of Rome, also looks like a fun place to catch a match.

Italy trailed at halftime but benefited from yet another goalkeeper error to tie the game. Italy is in the Cup’s weakest group so advancing to the second round is beyond doubt, which might explain why the Italian play was uninspired, or perhaps the flow of the game was dictated by Paraguay’s defense-first approach.

The driving Cape Town rain didn’t help the quality of play. But it was sunny here so everyone was happy.

10 Things We Learned from the World Cup’s 1st Weekend

1. U.S. interest in the tournament, which has been growing slowly since we hosted in 1994, has accelerated. ESPN is showing every match in spite of the time differential. Locally, San Francisco had the second-highest U.S. city rating for the match against England (11.2, second to San Diego’s 11.5). That is lower than this year’s U.S.-Canada Olympic gold medal hockey game (15.9 in SF) but the Cup is a social event and it was absurdly good weather yesterday so there was much more buzz in town for the soccer than for hockey in February, including well-attended open-air presentations of the game at both the baseball stadium and the plaza at City Hall.

2. The World Cup is bigger than anyone. Except Maradona. TV cameras showed the Argentine legend-coach more than world star Lionel Messi, eternally damned Robert Green or any other single person this weekend, and that’s not including any youTube videos of Maradona using his royalty toilet (please, no hand of God jokes). Also, he must have set a record for touches by a coach. I counted six times he kicked the ball back into play. Letting go is hard.

3. Since when does Germany frolic and pass down field like a bunch of goal-happy Mediterraneans? And they take two yellow cards for diving? This is the steadfast, non-demonstrative country that is supposed to hold the EU together?

4. Speaking of which, Speisekammer in Alameda is a great place to watch the Deutschers. Three rooms with slightly different atmosphere and light, good projection, plenty of German food and beer, and a nice crowd of just the right number. Full, but not packed. Apparently they’re going to be open for the 4:30 match against lawless Serbia later this week (the countries are definitely not best friends forever), but check to make sure.

5. The Irish have not forgiven Thierry Henry or anyone else in France. For a dangerous laugh, walk into an Irish pub and tell them they may have to watch a French-English quarterfinal.

6. Greece is as much overdrawn at the Cup as in the real world.

7. The host nation has provided the most exciting moments so far, their goal against Mexico to open the tournament’s scoring and their last-minute shot that rang off the post.

8. The new ball is responsible for the failure of goalkeepers to hold on, the failure of strikers to get their shots to bend down after lifting them over the wall, and the failure of South Africans to take a breath so that the vuvuzelas can give way to the odd moment of human sound.

9. The vuvuzela, contrary to rumors, has nothing to do with the spaceship from District 9 hovering over Johannesburg. According to some, a Cape Town man is responsible for the original, which is of higher quality and more expensive than the knockoffs widely in use. In three different matches the note we heard was a B-flat. Does that mean all vuvuzelas are tuned to B-flat, or is it a consistent aural mean?

You know that you’ve been watching a lot of the Cup when someone comes up to you and says, “What’s that sound?” And you say, “What sound?” Apparently the authorities are considering a vuvuzela ban. Fortunately they are rather large so it won’t be as hard to enforce as if they were, say, kazoos.

Medical officials are concerned that excessive use of the vuvuzela can lead to lip, mouth, throat and lung injuries, as well as hearing loss. They are also concerned about the spread of flu and other communicable diseases through the use of shared instruments. South African President Jacob Zuma allegedly has tried to allay these fears by telling residents that this can be avoided by taking a shower after the game.

10. Although riot police did bust up a labor protest at the Durban stadium a few hours after the Germany – Australia match, and there has been the odd full-team hotel robbery, the host country made it through three days without a power shutdown, outbreak of plague or return to white rule. Maybe the international press has been pitching fear just a wee bit? Or perhaps calamity just took the weekend off.

Two things we haven’t yet learned: Whether or not Kim Jong-il is going to exercise his imperial prerogative and coach the North Koreans against Brazil. And what happens to a country when all of its residents hear a B-flat for 30 days straight.

This week: Monday’s schedule includes the opening games for perennial powers Italy and The Netherlands, while Tuesday brings what should be one of the most competitive and consequential games of the opening round – Portugal plays Cote d’Ivoire, with the loser requiring an unlikely victory over Brazil to have a chance to advance to the Round of 16.

On Wednesday the sides begin their second matches, with Thursday’s contest between France and Mexico of particular interest in one of the more difficult groups. The U.S. is back in action on Friday against Slovenia, the outcome of which will probably determine whether the Yanks move on to the Round of 16.

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