U.S. Ambivalence Toward the World Cup and American Nationalism

-Through the lack of media attention, the World Cup is a “neglected subject” which fails to be recognized as a factor of national identity in the US.

-“Previous research has interpreted similar stories on American ambivalence toward soccer as an accurate reflection of the sport’s low cultural valence, adding it to a list of other ‘American exceptionalisms’”.

National Identity and Sport

-The US wanted to use the claim of external differences and chose not to emphasize the importance of soccer in order to establish their individuality from other nations.

-Although it is interesting that in the US, soccer is now becoming a much more prominent sport as the MLS is drastically expanding and players from Europe are now joining clubs in the US as they become older.

National Sporting Styles

-The manners in which a club plays, wins, and loses are indicative of the identity of its nation

Differentiating us from them: The United States versus the world

-The game of soccer was perceived in a very passionate and extreme manner in countries throughout the world, but must have seemed rather controversial when the US had games such as Football.

– While support for the US national team grew only upon realizing that the team in the 2002 World Cup did better than expected, was the media really behind the rationale of Americans generally being unenthused with soccer?

-In the US is “life will go on as normal, while the rest of the world goes crazy over the World Cup”

-It seems as though Americans were reluctant to approve of soccer due to the fact that it seemed foreign and they did not wish to conform to the rest of the world.

Representing Sport Fandom as National Culture

-It is difficult to represent the interest of soccer in America based on how “passionate” the people interviewed were.

-The US attempted to use technology as a means of facilitating the formation of their national identity.