Assimilation happens if you allow it. I beleive that teh Central and South American immigrants to the US will prove to be a valuable addition in a generation -- the parents coming here are much like my grandparents -- hard working, trying to make it in a tough world, and ready to adopt their new country even if they can't speak the language.

As for quieting soccer hooliganism -- unlikely. remember that we are the earthbound God of Victory Riots.

No, it's just that all our hooligans are a busy watching the WWF.

Many of our hooligans were otherwise occupied this weekend in the galleries at Bethpage Black.

US hooligans? Not very likely until football--oops, I mean soccer--is adopted by lots and lots of the Joe Sixpacks out there, i.e., the same sort of guys who torch police cars in L.A. when the Lakers win, and not just by soccer moms (and soccer dads). Right now, football (damn!!--I always do that!) is overwhelmingly the sport of the 'burbs and the immigrant communities, neither one of which is likely to turn out many Euro-style hooligans very soon.

Japan has had a quieting influence on soccer hooliganism, for the simple reason that their police haven't sent in the riot squads every time an Englishman raises his voice. They were conga-ing round the Stadium on Saturday during the 3-0 victory over Denmark. In most European countries the tear gas and the nightsticks would have come out.

I hope this is true and reflects a trend. At a 1998 Gold Cup match between the US and Mexico in the LA Coliseum, vastly outnumbered American fans were subject to numerous abuses, including having cups of beer (and I recall urine) thrown at them.

Mickey Kaus might have some recollection of this. I'd hate to see the field on the issue ceded to Pat Buchanan.

I had a similar experience back in 1997 when my friends took me to the MLS championship in Washington. DC United was playing on its home field, and all the constituent parts of American football fandom (55,000 strong) came out to cheer in the midst of a chilly rainstorm.

We were all packed cheek to jowl: latins, anglos, asians, blacks; brokers from Bethesda, handymen from Mt. Pleasant. Despite the fact that DC won, there was no riot, and everybody got along famously -- I even got to use plenty of my pigeon Spanish that day, something that brought a shocked smile to the face of the guy I used it on.

It was everything soccer/football in American can be, and I'm convinced, eventually will be. The future looks bright from here.

Here's an excellent article about US Soccer. He just wrote it this morning. Highly reccomended.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/davies/020617.html

reccomended, recommended, reccommended... whatever.

Another observation: a neighbor of mine is a Brazilian immigrant. He was bitterly disappointed in '98 after the US showed poorly in France. But he said: "America will become a futbol superpower. We have exactly the right blend of the European and Latin styles."

Unlike a majority of Americans, I have enjoyed following the World Cup. One thing I like doing is seeing the names of the players for each team. You could tell if the Russians were playing or if it was a team from the African continent. Those gorgeous Swedes all had names to match their country of origin, as did the Germans, the French, the Portuguese, etc.

Then the Americans took the field (or pitch, as it's called in soccer). Raya, O'Brien, McBride, Friedl, Hedjuk, Beasley, Donovan, and Jones. Makes you proud to be from a country of mutts, doesn't it?

I feel bad for the people who haven't been following the US in the World Cup. I was only 8 when the 'Miracle on Ice' happened, so it was lost on me. But at 4:15 this morning when Landon Donovan was heading in the second goal, I was jumping up and down in my apartment trying not to wake my wife and neighbors while tears were streaming down my face.

I now have my 'Miracle on the Pitch' to tell my future kids about.

I'm surprised you didn't link to two WaPo articles over the last week, one on the US-Korea match, the other on the US-Mexico match, both indicating a generational split; the parents rooting for the country-of-origin team, the kids backing the USA. Assimilation's still at work, fortunately.

Watching the World Wide Fund for Animals, a.k.a. the World Wildlife Fund? They sued the World Wrestling Federation for trademark violation and WON. So now Thursday night on UPN you can watch World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE.

As far as assimilation goes, it doesn't hurt when young fans of hispanic origin can look up to American players with last names such as Llamosa and Armas and Mastroeni.

As for Carlos Llamosa, he's a naturalized US citizen who is originally from Columbia and was working as a janitor in the WTC when it was first bombed in '92. After he became a citizen and was eligible for the US national team, he joked that he'd like to be refered to as Chuck. This is a wonderful team made up of great men, I hope some of you have made the effort to follow the team.

Also, it's pissing off the European press. What more could you ask for.

"SOCCER COVERAGE isn't really my thing, especially when it provides no opportunities to twit the French."

But Glenn, this world cup has provided the very best opportunity to twit the French: the current (still, but only for another two weeks) World Champions AND European Champions were sent packing after the first group round.

What more could you possibly ask for?

Here in LA: Walmart was selling only Mexican uniform and fan attire and advertising "Support Your Country". The U.S. National Anthem was booed in Mexico City, riots broke out in Juarez, and you will not here a voice from the Mexican "American" (that's a laugh) community supporting the American team.

Lots of ill will on the talk shows here of the "If you Don't Love it Leave it" variety. Young Mexicans here hate this country and many belog to a separtist movement called Azatlan.

To follow up on Howard's first paragraph, here is an article from the AP wire about the reactions by some fans in Mexico.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020617/ap_wo_en_po/sports_soccer_wcup_mexico_reax_2

The last two paragraphs are right of an article from The Onion.

If anybody's got access to Nielsen numbers, it would be great to see the World Cup TV ratings in the U.S.

Between ESPN and Univision, betcha they rival the Stanley Cup figures -- and those hockey games were aired in prime time, not at 5 a.m.

Apologies for inadequate sourcing, but I recall seeing an Economist piece a few months back about a human-relations honcho in Mumbai, of all places, who among other devices organizes sports leagues where all teams have to have some Hindus, some Muslims. Mentioned in the context of noting that Mumbai, though right next to the Gujarat hotspots, has been relatively quiescent.

"If anybody's got access to Nielsen numbers, it would be great to see the World Cup TV ratings in the U.S. "

ESPN story

It only really applies to ESPN(2) and ABC and is dated June 11, but it's a start.

Apologies; I was looking for a source on the 1998 hooliganism in Los Angeles by Mexican-American fans, and I found a Pat Buchanan article without realizing I was linking to a white supremacist site. (Pat Buchanan on a white supremacist site? Quelle surprise!)

This does raise another issue; are we in danger of letting racists dominate the national conversation on race the way the Europeans are? There are distinct minorities -- radical Muslims, Hasidic Jews, and, most notably, a strain of southern-California Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, who absolutely reject the idea of assimilation. Go to Aztlan's web page, and you'll see violent anti-Israel rhetoric, and you have to wonder whether it's a good thing to have a movement here in America that wants to model itself after the Palestinians.

So mexican booed the Star Spangled Banner? I was at a Yankees-Blue Jays game in 1985 in Yankee Stadium when the crowd loudly booed Oh Canada. Was hatred or envy of Canada the reason. No -- it was a pennant race. The fact that a crowd of passionate sports fans may have a few jerks in it is true in Mexico and elsewhere. I live in Philly now, and my friends from D.C. come up for the Eagles-Redskins games on occassion. They deck themselves out in Eagles gear for safety.

Just for the record, the 1998 Gold Cup Final revealed more about the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum than it did about Mexico-US relations. The Coliseum, once home to the Los Angeles Raiders and the XFL, is notoriously lax when it comes to security issues for non-Southern Cal football events. Raider fans took advantage, so did Mexico fans.

When Mexico played Argentina in the same venue a couple of years after the Gold Cup, there was the same booing of the opposition's anthem and aerial concessions. The same has happened with games involving club teams from Mexico playing exhibitions (although without the anthem booing, of course). Meanwhile, soccer games at the altogether more strictly policed Rose Bowl have been much less melodramatic.

Los Angeles sports fans might be irresponsible, violent, glory-hunting frontrunners, but we're not necessarily anti-American.

Actually, Iain, the worst of the worst hooligans are pretty much the same group of 20-30 instigators each time something really bad happens and the Japanese understood this. So instead of watching all English fans, they made a point to familiarize themselves with these specific people, who are very well known throughout Europe. When they landed at the airport in Japan, they were denied entry and put on planes home.

Twit the French? The answer to "what more could
you possibly ask for?" was that the defending
World Cup champions exiting the scene
WITHOUT SCORING A GOAL! MERDE!

Actually, here in Japan, there have indeed been sporadic cases of hooliganism, and there has been blanket police coverage (in some venues they stand only three feet apart) but the destruction been perpetrated for the most part by young Japanese males, not visiting foreigners. This perplexes the Japanese media to no end, since in their terminology, foreigners who destroy a phone booth are "hooligans" while Japanese who kick in a window are "overzealous fans."

Totally off the subject, but the initials "WWF" now, by court order belong to the World Wildlife Fund, not World Wrestling Federation. The decision was handed down earlier this week.

Here is some information on more recent TV ratings for the World Cup:

World Cup scores with U.S. TV viewers

Don't get all worked up over Mexico's soccer team. It's never been that good. That's why Mexicans couldn't be bothered with rioting in L.A.

Now Germany. This is one arrogant gang. The biggest-selling German paper, Bild, previewed D-Day with the Americans by barking GOODBYE, COWBOYS.

Them's fightin' words. I hate Dallas.

Global govt needs a gobal sport: soccer. Currently the push is making North and South America ONE trading block; similar to what the Europeans are suffering through now. So having a "US Soccer" team composed of North and South America(n)s is yet another push to eliminate "nationalism" and support the New World Order's goal for global governance.

Hence another reason why, even after 9/11, the US govt still refuses to secure its borders and continues supporting massive numbers of illegal Latin aliens into the US.

More on aliens at , , ,