Lechner’s piece describes the development of the narrative that the Dutch national team and Dutch soccer in general has a distinct style that sets Dutch soccer apart from the soccer of other nations.  He looks at the historical records and concludes that this style, in reality, is not an essential part of Dutch play and in fact is a narrative that was invented to create a notion of distinctiveness, superiority and specialness compared to the rest of the world.

The importance of this narrative to Dutch fans could be instructive to proponents of soccer in the United states as a way of promoting the game.  Americans have a deep belief in the concept of American exceptionalism and view soccer, and those who support the game, as somewhat foreign.  This distrust and disinterest in soccer could be overcome with an invention of an “American style,” whether a true style or fictitious, that could play on American identity so that  fans could see the soccer players and teams who practice this style as an embodiment of “true Americans” who will demonstrate the superiority of the American style to the rest of the world.

Law’s article on the 2012 Euro tournament and the effects of the spectacle of the tournament on fans describes the different views on if modern international soccer enhances international relations or fosters detrimental nationalism.  The piece looks at how the tournament was held in post Soviet countries that have been dealing with behavior issues of racist fans at matches while comparing this to reports of good behavior by fans and comments of fans reacting well even in defeat.

In terms of the article’s impact on the adoption of soccer here in the US I think this again hinges on the possible development of a narrative that describes soccer players as a kind of “true Americans”.  If this narrative can be established then there should be no reason why soccer would not become a popular spectator sport like baseball or American football.  Whether this would be a good or bad thing depends on the behavior of fans.  As long as fans behave well and do not take the games too seriously the matches should not lead to problems on the international level and could lead to more engagement by Americans with the international world.

Quotations

‘Our’ soccer had always been different – different, especially, from the dour, mechanical version attributed to the Germans, who in this regard, as in others (Boterman 1999), served as a major foil. These examples convey the widespread notion that, like other nations prominent in the game, the Dutch have enriched global soccer with a distinct style that reflects their special virtues (216).

There was no generalised violence. The behaviour of players, officials and spectators was generally restrained, despite reports of some episodes of nationalist and racist abuse and fighting between rival fans. Instead of focussing on exceptional moments of unrestrained violence what needs explained instead is the routine collective and personal control over fluctuating emotional tensions at football matches (15).

Questions

1. How could a concept of an “uniquely American” style of soccer develop or gain popularity?
2. Despite the good behavior of international football fans at the Euro tournament would it be worth it to play on and continue nationalistic beliefs just to increase the popularity of soccer?