The myth-making of American 'plastic' soccer

Thought I'd continue with the theme of football as we are approaching the start of the World Cup!

Media is filled with rankings, speculations and analysis these days. Who will win? Who's the biggest profile? Which team has the nicest outfits? As I reported yesterday almost half of North Americans, naively, believe that the US will stand as champions in about a month. In a non-scientific poll 12,5 percent of Swedes believe that England will capture the gold-medals, almost as naive as the Americans if you ask me. A more serious poll was also conducted to see which nation Swedes would support in lack of Sweden's participation. Hardly surprising Denmark received the largest support with 17 percent of the votes, followed by England and Spain. Big football nations such as the Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina also gathered some sympathies. Equally non-surprising was that not a single out of the thousand polled persons voted for the US. Most, I believe, it has to do with the fact that the US historically has not been a big football-nation, regarding trophies and public interest, although the country has participated in the World Cup since the start. There is a resistance towards football being established in the US, the US holding the World Cup, or the national side reaching far in international tournaments among a, albeit small, segment of the Swedish and West European public. As an anonymous commentator on of Sweden's largest football blogs put it: "the eventual football-boom of the US can be a bit 'dangerous' as they will then start to export their plastic franchise-football one way or another". Of course this type of comments follows a general trend of fear against American influence, in Sweden for instance that it will mean too much of commercialism and capitalism. The fear of American soccer meaning turning world football into "plastic" and "fake" also follows a long tradition of views on the American nation, people and culture as not really "real", a different kind of reality, and one not as good. It should be noted however that slightly more positive than negative comments about American soccer culture have been posted in the last couple of weeks, so there is no general coalescing anti-Americanism going on among Swedish (and West European broadly) football fans and pundits.

It is further shown in an international poll which has been undertaken in the last couple of weeks, which shows that Italy is "the most hated team" in this years World Cup, with 20 percent of the votes. The US is number ten with three percent of the votes as the team people don't want to see as champions (interestingly with the same percentage as North Korea). More "feared" or "hated" are larger football-nations Germany, France, Brazil and Argentina, probably as they get votes from nations regarded as competitors for the gold. Here, the US is little to fear, as they shouldn't be feared to turn world football into plastic commercialism.

U.S. optimism also in football

This years World Cup of football in South Africa is only three days away. Sadly without Swedish participation this year, but somewhat of a relief is that most other big football-nations are taking part, which will hopefully guarantee entertaining plays.

One such big nation is not the USA. On the contrary, taking in consideration its size and wealth it must be one of the "smallest" footballing countries in the Western hemisphere, as it so far has very few accomplishments on the World stage. Having made it to the round 0f 16 a few times since 1990 might be considered a decent result, but real successes have been lacking. This have not decreased Americans' optimism for this years tournament, where a whole 46 percent of North Americans (also including Canadians) believe that the US will bring home the gold from South Africa. The US is in general an optimistic society, where positive attitudes towards the future, one's own situation, and technology outrank those of the cousins in the West. When it comes to belief in one's own nation, as measured in the belief of the "cultural superiority" of the country, the US is only outranked by Italy in the Western hemisphere. I was a bit surprised to find that this had spread to football, which is still quite a small sport in the US. It has grown since the World Cup was held there in 94 though, and now the games in the domestic league MLS oftentimes fill more seats than the National Hockey League-matches.

That is not to say that the U.S. optimism about their national "soccer" side has grounds. I would say there is no chance of the US winning the gold, although they should advance from an easy group consisting of England, Algeria and Slovenia. Making it to the quarter-finals would be a big accomplishment for the Americans.

An America-letter from Hasse Backe

Many-a Swedes have traveled across the Atlantic in search of success and a better economic life for themselves. Though the Scandinavians crossing the pond in our times do not share the financial necessity that often did their ancestors, we still love getting America-letters home telling of success and glory.

Swedish sportstars are today probably the most frequent senders of America-letters, mostly in ice-hockey naturally where cities like Detroit, New York and Denver have been painted in blue and yellow. Less renowned is the American soccer league, MLS, which now hosts two Swedes. Former superstar and leader of the national team, Fredrik Ljungberg, brings star-quality to Seattle Sounders. Newcomer for this season is coach Hasse Backe, who was given the difficult job of turning the tide for the leagues worst team last season, the New York Red Bulls. To say that Backe has fulfilled his job assignment so far is a huge understatement. New York tops the Eastern Conference, has already after seven games as many victories as the whole of last season, and has advanced in the MLS Cup.

Swede Backe has been accredited with shaping the Red Bulls' earlier shaky defense, and his players salute him for his Scandinavian calm, describing him as "strong, relaxed, not too pressuring, giving us players a very positive feeling". Aside from a few exceptions, the league-adventures of Backe's team doesn't receive that much attention in the homeland, unless it has to do with him being cheered for his work, such as this time. Just as we Swedes love hearing that American superstars love our country, we love getting notice of Swedish success-stories from home. It boosts our small sense of national pride to know that Henrik Zetterberg is carrying the Detroit Red Wings, or that Johan Renck and Alexander Skarsgård are collaborating with the biggest stars of Hollywood. That our small nation can produce success on the largest of stages, in the toughest of businesses, in a country where so many before have tried and failed, almost makes us raise the yellow and blue and sing "thou old, thou free..."

What's It All About?

Why write yet another blog about the United States? It's been done, we've heard it, we've read it. No, you haven't.

There are special reasons for writing the story of American influences and presence in Sweden, and Sweden's existence and impact on America, as well as the special relationship between the two countries.

In relative terms, Sweden had the third highest immigration rate to the United States from the middle of the 19th century up until World War II, only surpassed by Ireland and Norway. The gives Sweden a special place in the creation of American life and society, and it puts America close in the "mental map" of many Swedes as personal and biological ties are created between the two countries by immigration. I would argue that the US are closer to Swedes than are many European countries. American influences are also heavily present in Swedish society and everyday life, perhaps mostly in the form of popular culture such as TV-series, movies, music, and clothing.
On the other hand Sweden and the United States are in many characteristics very different nations; our history of political and societal ideas vary vastly in certain aspects. Today it is perhaps most visible in the differentiated views on religion, welfare and taxes, and our relationship with the rest of the world.

The US and what goes on "over there" interests us and attracts significant media attention, not only in the field of politics but also sports, culture, media, religion, and "everyday life". These days Swedish mainstream media are occupied with the oil disaster that might come to threaten wildlife and nature on the Southeast coast of the US.

All these subjects and more will be explored and analyzed on this site. So stay tuned.