You say soccer, I say football
by awindram
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Only hours now to go until the World Cup kicks off, and I am very, VERY excited. Embarrassingly so.
And it seems that I’m not entirely alone in the USA on that score. Only a few weeks back the Champions League final was shown for the first time live on network US television and all the World Cup games will be easy enough to view. Coverage of the tournament isn’t (and possibly never will be) at the all-encompassing levels it is in Europe or South America, where God help you if you’re not a fan as you’re going to be having a miserable four weeks, but there is a palpable interest (and perhaps even more curiosity) in the World Cup over here.
So that’s good for me. It means I won’t be floundering when the conversation turns to sport. Most of the time when people start banging on about the NFL or the NHL, they might as well be speaking Esperanto for all I can understand, but when the conversation turns to actual football talk I am finally in a position to contribute something intelligent to the debate. One thing, however, that I have noticed when talking to numerous Americans about the sport is that they’re often very quick to apologise to me for using the “S” word. As if saying it in front of an Englishman is grossly offensive
“It must really annoy you when we call it that,” they’ll say with a somewhat sheepish look on their face. “It’s so dumb that we call it soccer and not football. Calling it football makes so much more sense.”
And yes, it does, I agree. Football is a much better name for the sport, it’s unfussy and functional. Soccer, by contrast, is awful, it sounds a little leaden to my ear. But please, you really have no need to apologise for using it. This isn’t to say I don’t have problems with some of your word choices or pronunciations. Calling a “courgette” a “zucchini”, or an “aubergine” an “eggplant” is plain wrong. Likewise, calling “coriander” “cilantro” and “rocket” “arugula” is just confusing. As someone who doesn’t like either “coriander” or “rocket”, I was convinced I was the butt of some cosmic joke when I first came to the US and ordered what I thought was an intriguing sounding salad of arugula and cilantro. But calling “football” “soccer”? Well, we’re really in no position to get on our high-horse on that one. “Soccer” is a silly word, yes, and it’s a very silly word that the English (and not the Americans) coined.
The word “soccer” probably originated at Oxford University at the end of the Nineteenth Century. The students at Oxford liked giving pointless slang words for things, and imaginatively their favoured method for crafting a slang word was usually just to stick an “-er” suffix to a word. So the two most popular forms of football were given slang names. Rugby football became “rugger” and association football (so named because the rules of the game were codified by the Football Association) became “soccer” (from “assoc”). Oxford graduate and England football captain Charles Wreford-Brown (or Wreforder-Browner as he was known at Oxford) has then been credited with popularising the term further in the early Twentieth Century.
So as much as some Brits might erroneously claim, Soccer is not a dumb American term.
Anyway, not long to go now and the only prescription for this World Cup fever I’ve got is New Order’s “World in Motion”.
[image: Wikipedia]
Not all Americans call it soccer! We tend to call it football. May be since most of my family comes from England though.
I, however, will not be watching the World Cup. I’m an NHL faithful and since the season ended two nights ago, my sports watching has ceased until the fall!
Have fun watching! One hour! Maybe? Or 30 minutes? (I keep getting count down retweets from friends!)
Hang on you’ve got English family and you’re not going to be watching the USA v England?
Though I don’t fully understand the rules and really a need American friends to explain them to me while watching, I’ve really enjoyed the couple of NHL games I’ve been to (the Flyers a handful of times and one trip to see the Devils). Out of all professional American sports I’ve seen the atmosphere is closest to that at an English footballl game.
No! Unless someone in the family decides to put it on, it won’t be on. I just can’t get in to football. I used to play when I was young, and do every once in a while now, but watching it on the television has never been to enthralling.
You are speaking to a die hard Devil’s fan though! Every home game… I’m there. They’re a great team, both on the ice and off. I can’t say much for the Flyers though, although those boys did put on a good series this past week!
Dude, the part about word choices and pronounciations had me laughing out loud. When I lived in London I used to say the same thing… except the opposite of course.
Am so excited about the World Cup!! Hating my job right now though since I am stuck without TV. But I will not be missing USA v. England! I’ve been talking about it non stop my mom is letting me skip her birthday celebrations. Which either means my mom is really cool or I am a horrible daughter.
Hi, Just B, thanks for commenting.
I might actually be missing the USA – England game as I’m in LA at the weekend for a friend’s birthday celebrations.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch it.
Try and catch as much of it as you can. I’m sure your friend will understand!
World in motion is possibly the best World Cup song ever. It was created by New Order so of course it was going to be quality. Unlike that Frank Skinner/David Baddiel 3 Lions rubbish. I absolutely can’t stand that dirge. World in Motion has pep and zip. It’s also perennially cool. There is nothing wrong with that song.
Yeah, even John Barnes can’t ruin – instead he pushes it into brilliance territory.
Made the mistake of listening to the Dizzee Rascal and James Corden offering for this year. Not good.
Hello stranger,
Your brother in law is counting down the hrs to kick off! Here in England excitment is growing, experts believe this is our best chance to win since 1966. The BBC is at its best Gary linaker,Alan Hanson and Shearer have a fab purpose built studio which slowly moves!! ( a bit ike the London eye).ITV coverage is just not up to par however they will show the first match tom.Anyway good luck to your American buddies may the best team win. I have been banned from the living room as hubby says i make stupid following comments such as:
‘Which way are we shooting?’, ‘Who’s winning’ and ‘Who’s he? He’s good looking’.
Oh no, the family has found the blog!
Glad you picked World In Motion: it’s the football song that’s not really a football song (seriously, if it wasn’t for the chants of IN-GER-LAND at the end it would just be another New Order song. Featuring John Barnes!)
I really don’t like this year’s “song”. Perhaps I hate it more than “Vindaloo”.
Hi Scarlet,
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Yep, it’s my favourite of the England songs too – by some margin. Wonder what Ian Curtis would have made of it though?
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You might want to do something about that England team of yours…lol
Have them hung, drawn and quartered. Well, just hung and quartered, they seem to be doing the drawing part pretty well all by themselves.
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