Category — World Cup 2006

I recently finished reading Among the Thugs, Bill Buford’s book about English football hooligans. In it, Buford dissects the nature of a mob, mob mentality and, in turn, mob violence. Calling it a disturbing read is an understatement.

While I read the book and because I had never seen anything like what he described, I conjured up mental images of what those drunken, late-night mobs must have looked like. It was a couple days after I finished Among The Thugs that I came across the video below. It turns out that those pictures I envisioned were almost dead-on; hooliganism looked exactly as I thought it would. (I suppose that’s a tribute to the author’s storytelling ability.)

During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Panorama, an investigative television show that airs on the BBC, sent undercover videographers to document hooligan activity. What they found, while shocking, also inspires a sort of train-wreck fascination. One can’t stop watching and wondering: Why do people act like fools? What inspires people to do evil, destructive things?

I reckon those are timeless questions applicable to more than just football violence and, while the program offered some answers, it served best by offering viewers visual evidence of that which they’d only seen in print.

The video is long (59 minutes) so set aside a good chunk of time to watch it.

Photographer: Gertrud K

The title of this photo is “Die Angst des Torwarts beim Elfmeter.” According to Google’s translator that’s German for “The fear of the goalie in the penalty.” According to the photographer, it means “The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.” Obviously not perfect translations but you get the idea.

From what I gather, there were a lot of these sand sculptures in Berlin during the 2006 World Cup.

Check out these great panoramas (panoramae?), some complete with sound, of people watching World Cup games on big screens around the world.

My favorite one is this shot of fans in Baltimore watching the final. Check out the chalkboard sign behind the bar.

Actually, the whole site is pretty sweet. Waste an hour or two looking at the other panoramas, including this one at the Gulf Cup Final between Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Last summer’s mix of sun, beer and excitement during the football World Cup appears to have produced a massive hormone rush in German bedrooms, gardens and back alleys. Nine months on, birth clinics across the country that hosted the tournament are reporting a much-needed baby boom.

Full story here.

Via the only guy in the “A-list” folder of my Bloglines, kottke.

I have a theory that many Americans contribute to the popularity of professional football (you know, that game played primarily with the hands and a pointy object that little resembles a ball) simply because they have been told that football is popular. It’s kind of like how, in the late 90s, everyone pretended to like Merlot. Many people watch the games because they have been told that millions of other people are watching the games.

At least in the case of the Super Bowl, it turns out that not as many people are watching as we’ve always heard. Football media love to say that 1 billion people watch the Super Bowl. Thanks to a nice little piece at MSNBC, we know that “Super Bowl XLI will be televised in 232 countries and available to an estimated worldwide audience of 750 million to 1 billion people” (emphasis added).

Further, “Super Bowl XL posted an average audience of 98 million, with 151 million tuning in at some point. If you’re number-crunching, that’s 849 million short of a billion.”

I wouldn’t even bring this up if not for the money quote in the next paragraph: “One 2006 sporting event did come close to the 1 billion mark: The World Cup final between Italy and France drew an average audience of 260 million, and 603 million people saw at least part of the game.”

As the end of the year draws nigh, we’ll all have fun reading and then growing weary of those nostalgic year-in-review articles. Since I don’t fancy myself better than anyone else, I’ve compiled what I believe are the three biggest U.S. soccer stories of 2006.

3: Bruce Arena

When the U.S. made their inauspicious exit from the 2006 World Cup, Bruce Arena was fired. While that was interesting, if expected, it was merely the lighting of a fuse. Soon after Arena was hired to take over at Red Bull New York, he unleashed a scathing review of the U.S. Soccer Federation and Sunil Gulati, who he called a “super-fan.”

Bruce would later apologize for his remarks, labeling them “distasteful,” thus ending the controversy and putting to bed an incredible eight years in U.S. soccer history.

2: The Search

After Arena was let go by the Federation, fans believed the search for his replacement would begin in earnest. While the world anticipated the crowning of Jurgen Klinsmann, the days went by, the list of candidates narrowed, and rumors and speculation took center stage.

Klinsmann was rumored to be fielding an offer from Mexico. Frank Yallop stated that he didn’t want the job just as Steve Nicol said he’d be happy to take the job, thank you very much. In November, Jose Peckerman was rumored to have accepted the job and later that month, Steve Cherundolo told German TV that Klinsmann was in. This was confirmed in December when various media reported that the deal was done.

Then, depending on your disposition, everything came together or fell apart when talks with Klinsmann broke down and he withdrew from consideration. Shortly thereafter, the Federation named Bob Bradley the coach with a caveat.

Of course, neither of the above stories would have been news had it not been for the story below:

1: U.S. Men’s National Team ousted at the World Cup.

Honest observers will admit that the World Cup run was cursed from the day the U.S. Men’s National Team was drawn into the Group of Death. Despite our over-inflated FIFA ranking, the proposition of facing Ghana, Italy, and the Czech Republic in group play was enough to crush the expectations of even the most cockeyed optimist.

Nor did the games leading up to the tournament inspire any confidence. Among the lowlights were a dismal showing against the Germans, a draw with Jamaica, a loss to Morocco and a slim victory over Latvia.

And yet, when the World Cup began, we believed.

In return for our belief, we were crushed—both emotionally and on the pitch. The cavernous gap in class was all too evident during the Czech Republic game. The ease with which Jan Koller scored the winner was a harbinger but still we believed in a rally.

And rally they would. The game against Italy will forever occupy a spot in the hearts of fans. Brian McBride showed the world how to play the game. Jorge Larrionda showed the world how not to ref. By the end of the tournament, the U.S. boys could claim that they were the only team not to lose to the champions.

With everything riding on the Ghana game, the odds looked good. Deuce finally got his team on the board but it wasn’t enough. Ghana would celebrate a deserved victory as U.S. fans secretly wished to sue someone for Claudio Reyna’s slip-and-fall, which effectively ended four long years of anticipation.

Your turn.

What do you think were the biggest stories in U.S. soccer this year?

M says: The death of Lamar Hunt (Story on ThroughBall)