Sports are ubiquitous in the American South. It’s on TV everywhere, all the time. And that’s particularly true in Birmingham, Alabama. We consistently rank at or near the top of ESPN’s ratings – and that’s for almost all sports, not just college football. It’s tough out there if you don’t like sports. You’re going to get left out of a lot of parties. So, I’ve learned over the years to gather just enough knowledge to not be bored silly whenever a sporting event is on the TV. (Except for NASCAR. I refuse to watch NASCAR. It’s just stupid. Sue me.) I was never good at actually playing sports. (Ok, to be fair, I was on the tennis team in high school. But they were desperate.) But I could always feign interest. And then, in my old age, I discovered soccer (Sorry, but I’m American. That’s what we call it.).
Soccer, unsurprisingly, is not on the list of most watched sports here in Alabama. You can expect people to make fun of you if you admit to watching it. And you can expect people to make serious fun of you if you admit to being hooked on an English soccer team, getting up at all manner of ridiculous hours on weekend mornings to watch them play. Your co-workers will buy you gag gifts related to said team for your birthday, to include a squad photo of your favourite player (which you will proceed to put up in your office, because, hey, you’re a good sport). You will become an oddity to your friends. Every time they see you, they will say, “So. How’s Arsenal doing these days?” And you will regale them with the exploits from the most recent match, and they will smile and nod, indulging you in your odd hobby. But sometimes, they actually do become interested. After all, enthusiasm can be infectious.
One of the things I’ve loved the most about becoming a ‘rabid’ soccer fan, is bringing people along with me for the ride. It started at my house, when my husband finally stopped making fun of me and started watching with me. It was at first a case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, but he’s now as big a fan of Arsenal as me. (Well, almost. I still think I win that contest.) I also have a co-worker who actively follows Arsenal now. Another who follows Chelsea. (I tried, really I did. I consider it my biggest failure to date.) And now, when people stop me in the hallway to ask about the weekend’s games, they often start with “I saw part of the Arsenal game on TV on Saturday.” Baby steps, people.
All this leads up to my experience with the World Cup this summer. I’m sitting here on Saturday afternoon, surrounded by a house that needs cleaning, laundry that needs doing, dishes that need washing. And I’m planted in front of the TV, watching the World Cup, as I have done almost every day for the last two weeks. If you asked my husband, he would tell you that it doesn’t take much to distract me from housework…Martha Stewart I am not. But almost everything in my life (except work, darn it) has taken a back seat to soccer in the last two weeks. I’ve been to a bar to watch an England game with 200 other people, to a barbecue restaurant to watch a US game with some friends from church, and, on Thursday to a long lunch with 11 co-workers to watch the US play Germany. Now, if I’m honest, I was more interested in Mesut and Lukas and Per than I was in Dempsey and Bradley and Zusi. But it was fun. Everybody was talking about it. Even my daughter watched it. And I know that it has as its roots the patriotic fervour that I normally despise (USA! USA!…please stop…). But I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m just a little excited at the prospect of even a percentage of these folks getting hooked on the game that I’ve come to love so much. Maybe I won’t get funny looks the next time I ask a bartender to turn the TV over to an Arsenal Champions League match on a Wednesday afternoon. Hell, maybe when I walk in, it’ll already be on.
Sorry, Skipper, but Tuesday I’m gonna be all “USA! USA!” when we play Belgium. I hope you’ll forgive me
This post is by alabamagooner ( @kmwood02 )
Positively Arsenal 
Hunter
I do not consider myself patriotic in any sense to be honest. The comment was more about the US coverage and how my lack of interest in how well the national side does would be construed as treasonous!
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thx for clarifying
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shall we laugh at manu and fergie who singed bebe instead of that scorer of that crap goal for colombia
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Cleverly for Pogba
Bebe for Rodriguez (he wasn’t signed up to Mendes till it was too late I guess?)
Rooney on £300K a week when he only seems to take training seriously in the weeks before a WC (as in when it’s too late!).
That’s what I call a Slurgussian legacy.
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despite benzema being relatively poor in the first half, i see giroud being sub in the second half. because some will argue benzema is not free to do the damage. but a good player he should be able to play to instruction wherever he is played yourself.
france coach has been too defensive with the players paraded in the midfield. cabaye, matuidi and pogba are defensive minded.
nigeria have been the better side. they scored a goal which i think they were unlucky to be ruled offside. and they got a stone wall penalty which the referee who was well placed decided not to award. this is not strange as fifa and its officials are doing their best to keep big football nations in this tournament.
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that matuidi wicked tackle is worse than a bite. it is career ending.
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The other Mike has finally arrived. Great first article, sweetheart! You nailed it! Now, go vacuum the floor! (Or should I say “Hoover the floor”, so as not to make waves?) UTA!
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*sigh* You know, Mike, folks who respond the way you did are the reason I’m usually reluctant to write online. I mean, I’m fine with your having an opinion regarding ‘football’ vs ‘soccer’, and in fact I understand your opinion. But I don’t think you had to go on the attack to express it. And to think George filters the comments he allows on here (thanks for that, by the way George).
Americans are damned if they do, damned if they don’t on this issue. Call it ‘football’ and you’re a hipster/poser just trying to show how cool you are. Call it ‘soccer’ and you’re a typical American just trying to make the rest of the world do things your way. Can’t win. I typically call it football when I’m here chatting with you guys, but it felt wrong to do that for the post, when the whole point of it was to try to convey an American experience. For what that’s worth…
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Loomer, your friend who used to play at Ole Miss represents a lot of the folks I meet around here who follow football. Most of them are 20-35 year old males, who used to play the game, or maybe knew someone who did. Most of the women fans I know used to play as well. There are very few, like me, who fell in love with the game late. My husband and I are easy to spot in a room full of fans watching a game – we’re easily the oldest folks there!
LG, it’s interesting what you say about USA fans vs. football fans. We’ll see how much coverage it gets once the US goes out – which could easily be tomorrow. Just as a point of reference, I watched the England/Italy game on a Saturday evening with about 200 folks. That same location packed in 600 people for the USA/Ghana game on Monday right after work. Insane.
Dex, I find Olympics coverage feels very one-sided toward US athletes particularly during the primetime, network coverage. If you have the ability to watch during the day, on all the alternate channels, you find pretty balanced coverage of all events, even those where the US doesn’t feature much. Olympics coverage is, by the way, where I first made the acquaintance of a certain Mr. Ramsey. And that didn’t feature the US at all.
Oh, and I see France has finally woken up.
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Bama, that’s impressive about the England Italy match. They must have thought England and Italy were good teams!
Layk, clear penalty in Odemwingie, very marginal offside call to disallow the goal, and Matuidi should have had a yellow in the first half. His later tackle was at least orange and he continued to foul after that with real impunity. Nigeria deserved at least extra time. It is sad that Nigeria go out on a mistake by Enteama after such good keeping and an own goal from a silly lapse of concentration. Unfortunate. Most unfortunate.
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nigaria were unlucky. kos had a good game. and giroud too.
the rivalry between giroud and benzema will make it difficult for them to play together in the same club. giroud has no qualms but benzema is a cry baby. alexis or remy for me.
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I think the problem with getti g Benzema is that each time AW out a team out it would have possible repercussions for the France squad. Not the healthiest situation. Sanchez would be a fantastic option for us.
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Hey George, the Mike that lives with me (otherwise known as my husband) tried to post a comment earlier. It was in moderation, but now it’s gone, he says. Did you bin him, thinking he was the other Mike? Or maybe you were trying to protect me from nasty comments…he didn’t tell me what he said. (banned smiley)
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Layksite: you must be wrong about Giroud having a good game. I could only follow it on Twitter and he was clearly the worst player on the field. Or so they said. Sorry – got that wrong: Debuchy was the worst by a distance. And it was all Wenger’s fault too. But I mustn’t worry, because later this evening they will tell me how ineffectual and lazy Ozil is. It would be sad if it wasn’t for the fact that the only people on my time-line claim to be Arsenal fans – which just makes it laughably tragic: you honestly couldn’t make it up.
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Never mind, George. Now he tells me it’s there. This is what happens when you allow spouses on your blog! And the juxtaposition of our responses just makes it even funnier…
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Spousal involvement always a tricky issue
Mrs Nicoll accompanied me to a soccer game once, 27th November 1982, against her better judgement. Saturday pm. East stand lower, pleasant spot.
A calamity.
A 2-4 doing by an excruciatingly irritating Watford. Barnes, Blissett, Rice !!! She never went again.
She understood.
2-3 and ten minutes to go, Arsenal pressing for a deserved equaliser. Watford clinging on.
A break toward the home goal, a clumsy challenge, an own goal – game over – and the guilty party?
Stewart Robson
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FH
giroud was very good again. his hold up play was good and his link up was good as well. but for the defensive minded midfielder in the french team, who couldnt create chances for him, he would have scored. but never mind, we are used to them slaging him off on twitter. i hope they all fuck off when they see him lead the line for us next season.
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boateng is a liability. why use mustafi as right back when you have the best right back in the world playing in a position he is not adept to. khedira can easily play the holding role while lahm play in his best position.
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Started well, ten minutes of shakey bad passing, then back in charge at the end. 0-0
How like our own dear team !
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I agree with layksite. Use Lahm where he belongs, not where Guardiola has created some avant-garde art/philosophy experiment!
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We are moving to the cracking of Algeria
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Low finally sees sense in our view Layksite!
Come on Algeria. I know you are tired. Find a bit of energy and composure in the final third.
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Griezmann is now being lauded for a brief cameo that resulted in him, a pacey winger, running at tired legs.
Seriously, if this was Theo doing the same, he would be getting slated for not scoring a brace!
And Giroud getting stick I see! He did really well, worked his knackers off, while Benzema floated about the left, not tracking back and lookung disinterested, intil he got his own way and moved central.
Nigeria were so so unlucky. How Matuidi wasnt sent off, gawd only knows?
And now, I have to put up with the clueless yammerings of Andy ruddy Townsend.
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Andy Townsend is a blatant chav fan.
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Great article ABG.
I do love hearing from Gooners abroad. ABG, you may have seen this video, and I post it to show that which brought tears to my eyes when I saw it. The video confirmed for me that Gooners abroad love Arsenal as much as those in London:
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Poor Algeria. Tough, tough. Come on–give it a go!
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Anicoll that’s a great story! As if I needed another reason to hate Robson, but that’s a good one to add to the list.
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ozil may need to learn one or two tips from aaron about how to score. apart from the miss, he is my man of the match
LSG, you can see right away the impact of lahm. national team managers are generally lazy.
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“Griezmann is now being lauded for a brief cameo that resulted in him, a pacey winger, running at tired legs.”
I’ve seen the ‘sell Giroud, buy Griezmann’ comments on Twitter on the back of one performance!
Really interesting article Kelly – don’t let ignorant comments put you off sharing your viewpoint.
Watching this Algeria/Germany game is really fascinating – Low set the team and tactics in a really strange way and they were lucky to survive the first half onslaught. But I’m pleased for the ‘flop’ Ozil, that he got the winner. So it’s Arsenal Fra vs Arsenal Ger in the next round! Well played and unlucky Algeria – glad they got their consolation goal at the end though.
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france vs germany. mertesacker vs giroud, ozil vs koscielny.
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I thought Ozil was magnificent for 70 minutes then faded a bit, before picking up strongly in extra-time The ITV commentators thought he was poor throughout. I think they are either thick, don’t understand sport or have a clear anti-Arsenal agenda. Actually, I am right on all three counts come to think of it,.
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They can say what they like, Oezil got a winning goal in the World Cup knockout rounds and Arsenal can only benefit from that. 🙂
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i dont see anything special about griezmann. with what i have seen of him in this tournament, he looks light weight to me. he will struggle in our rugby league. gnabry is better suited for our league. anyways, i’m not worried because i know arsene is not going for him.
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OG didn’t have a great game and neither did Benzema. Friedman was fine and the change brought better balance. However, Matuidi should have been off early in the second half. 10 man France might not have beaten Nigeria.
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Ozil had a good game. What do they want him to do? Algeria deserve credit for making it hard on Germany.
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Friedman= Griezmann
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I am away until Saturday ,so you can talk amongst yourselves.
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this is for the …..knowledgable…i have come to the conclusion that 25-35 are trouble dont know what they want…too picky etc…but the 35-45 category..holy f*** … straight to the point..no messsing around….karagounis great game mate…too bad you had that useless gekas to destroy your world cup……..mmmmm camouflage….george if youre away on saturday can i be the sheriff and ban everyone who talks negative on king luis? ..just for a day … 🙂 got pently of red cards to share …..mmmm pelanty!!! i see pelanty !!!
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What’s this Alabama, a post by you and it’s not about Aaron Ramsey?
Well he is a married man these days.
The USA team don’t look out of place in this competition at all and if my access to the internet is correct it looks like more and more people are getting behind the team!
And Kaka is signing for Orlando. That bloody fool Dick Law was asleep at the wheel again.
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Hunter
I propose a coalition rule here for the week
You and Dexter.
Matches, tinder, oily rags, kerosene. …. And slowly walks away.
And emoticons are free all week!!
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Wow. Our own Alabama Gooner making the headlines. And a damn good job too. I just love Kelly (sorry Mike) for her sincerity and honesty. Shines through everywhere, here and on Twitter.
As for the other Mike, lighten up.
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Lol, DC. I’ve been waiting almost 2 years for a topic besides Aaron that I felt knowledgable enough to write about. I could have written ad nauseum about him…still can for that matter. But none of you want to read that!!
Shotta, you make me blush. Such kind words. Thank you, my friend. And thanks to the rest of you, as well, for all the nice comments.
Hunter, make sure George deputizes (or deputises) you before he heads off. Otherwise, you’ll have no jurisdiction. He needs to use his posse comitatus powers.
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Matuidi should have been sent off. It’s a shame the ref was too much of a coward to give him a red card.
Forget Serge Aurier and all the flavor of the month right backs we’ve been linked with, I think Nigeria’s Efe Ambrose is an incredible player. He is 6′ 3″ tall, he is quick as all get out, he defends well and he glides past opponents as if they aren’t even there. His crossing ain’t half bad either. Oh and he’s only 25.
Jeez, those morons asking for Giroud to be sold on the back of this performance need to be banned from ever opining on football matters. Deschamps had him in the side for his size and his work rate. If he wanted to play to his strengths he would have sat Benzema and he wouldn’t have used a narrow, vertical formation. And to think these idiots always moan about Wenger’s lack of a plan B.
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Great link, Rantetta! Certainly brought a smile to my face!
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Great post ABG, it is true the universal language is not actually Esperanto but football. Wherever you go in the world the bug with the ball has infected millions. The association with a particular club becomes part of you and how you are known, Their are many people in my life who never use my name but know me just as “gooner” and because of this they even look out for ARSENAL results even though some of them aren’t totally caught up in the football epidemic. I myself link people with certain clubs and again think of them when I here that club or town mentioned. Anyway ABG keep infecting people and they will always remember how they got the bug that brings both heartbreak and immense joy.
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Rantetta, thanks for that video, it brought a tear to my eye. Was great to see the FA Cup win being celebrated worldwide. Unfortunately, I don’t have a bar like those to go to in France. I watched it in a French bar, with a West Ham supporting mate and a Algerian barman who can now say, ‘For Fuck Sake’ perfectly.
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fins…sokratis papastathopoulos…id sign him…irrespective of bias…genoa – milan – dortmund -world cup……. and only 26…. fighter
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He sounds all Greek to me. But we did see a little of him in the games against Dortmund. He’s not slow. But, I’d prefer to keep Vermaelan sentimental fool that I am.
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right now he is a level above tommyv ….and no i dont want to sell tommyv either, he is a character …just add papa in there and have per/kons and papa/tommyv two def pairs ..world class..fighters ..can play with ball at feet
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Brilliant film Rantetta – thanks
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