On our trip to the DC United soccer game, I noticed some very interesting phenomena. Instead of sitting with the UC group, I ventured over to the opposite side of the stadium with some other students to go cheer in the section with the “hooligans”. We walked into the crowd of singing and chanting fans, and I felt extremely out of place. Everyone was waving flags and wearing United jerseys, while I was merely dressed in black. We stood in the middle of the chaos, and when the fans—prompted by the leaders standing on chairs—began a chant we didn’t know the words to, we pretended to sing along. The leader a few rows ahead of us was fairly terrifying. He was upset with everyone standing in the hooligan section not participating in the cheers and songs, yelling profanities at them along the lines of “if you aren’t going to sing, we’re going to kick you out of the section”. Needless to say, we picked up the words to the chants quickly. It was actually really fun to be in the middle of such an enthusiastic crowd, and after we learned the chants, we were able to yell as loudly as the dedicated fans who had been coming to United games for a long time. One important thing I noticed was that nearly all the various cheers incorporated Spanish words, and one or two of them were entirely in Spanish. Although the majority of the crowd was not Hispanic, everyone seemed to know the words to the Spanish chants. Even some of the billboards around the field had Spanish on them. This struck me as a perfect link to How Soccer Explains the World. Foer would love this example of soccer acting as a bridge between cultures. Soccer is a much bigger deal in Spanish-speaking countries then in our own, and I think that’s the reason the Spanish cheers were used so prominently. The hooligans were brought together by both their love of the game of soccer and their team, and the common languages they screamed in. As well as using Spanish words, the cheers never said the word “soccer”. The fans referred to DC United as a “football team” instead. The fact that although we rebelled against British rule, and rejected their native language, we still use their unwanted word for our sport of soccer in a cheer for an American team, in our capitol no less. This just enhances Foer’s idea of soccer as a metaphor for globalization, because today, we have integrated more and more ideas, words, and cultural nuances of other countries into our own, just as we use the global term football in our soccer songs.
We were accepted into the group of fans after enthusiastically participating in the frenzied cheers of the soccer hooligans, and I was conscious of the true potency of mob mentality. Even though I had no idea who the “scheletto” was that the fans kept angrily cheering about, I felt like he was definitely an awful player, and worthy of their mockery. When I got home from the game, I googled him, and it turns out he is Guillermo Barros Schelotto, the striker and prominent player of Columbus Crew, DC’s opponent, and an extremely talented soccer player, and even though I didn’t know any of this information, I was prepared to yell about him along with the other fans. Another example of mob mentality I experienced was an animosity towards the Crew fans. At the metro after the game, there were Crew fans standing on the opposite side of the platform, and I immediately thought what awful people they must be for supporting Crew. This is a completely irrational thought, and I know this, but after being caught up in the fan’s enthusiasm for the team, it was the first thing that popped into my head. I understand now the motives for hooligan violence and it’s prevalence at sports games, especially soccer. When you are part of a large group of riled up individuals, it’s hard not to get carried away with what they’re doing, especially if you are not sober, like many of the fans in the hooligan section at the United game.
Overall, the United game was a really great experience because it was both enjoyable and instructional. I had fun cheering on DC and observing the soccer fans in their element, and I also gained a greater understanding and appreciation for Foer’s points in his novel, and soccer fans as a whole.
Dayna created a great review of what happened on what appeared to be the “hooligan” side of the stadium. Despite my love of cheering for the home team, and supporting DC United I was able to take more than I thought possible from venturing across the stadium. As Danya pointed out several of the cheers, signs, and even bar menus were in Spanish. It was as though instead of walking across the stadium to a different corner I was immersed in an entirely different world.
ReplyDeleteSoccer has been an interesting sport in American society today. Soccer interest and participation has not translated into recognition for soccer nationally, into fan support for the outdoor professional teams, or into a truly competitive international U. S. team. Part of the difference of soccer and other nationally known sports that Danya and I both noticed could be due to the lack of recognition of soccer by the media. In the 80‘s, the governing board of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rejected the United States' bid to host the 1986 World Cup was the perceived lack of commitment to the sport by the American public and those who ran the professional teams.
In addition, the media, print and video, have sorely shortchanged soccer. Marv Albert, NBC sportscaster, is unimpressed with soccer according to her comment made that: "My kids play soccer, but as a spectator sport, it has minimal meaning here. Its stats and players have no significance" (Fischler, 1984, p. 133). The same article quotes the New York Times saying it would like to cover soccer, "but we don't have the space." It is possible that if America learns to report soccer with the same passion and dedication as the Europeans soccer could reach new potentials in the United States.