So sings the UK hit song, “Three Lions,” which receives either a remake or reissue every four years, and usually charts until England loses the World Cup Football (or soccer to you Americans) tournament, and then football DOES come home. The song was first released in 1996, oddly a non-World Cup year, written by comedians David Baddiel & Frank Skinner along with Ian Broudie, lead singer of the band Lightning Seeds, who also recorded the hit version. Written from a frustrated fan’s point of view, its line “30 years of hurt never stopped me dreaming” referred to 1966, the one year England won it. The song hit #1 that year and again in a re-issue two years later. The current remake has the above line changed to “All those years of hurt,” so at least they’ve stopped counting.

                   Still the shadow of 1966 looms passionately in the average Brit football fan’s mind. The St. George’s Cross flags go up everywhere, displayed mostly from cars and houses, and enthusiasm really erupts if England’s team makes it past the first round. They usually do, but not much further.  There’s little chance that they will go very far this year, mostly because they’ve had to change team captains twice already, John Terry being stripped of it due to the usual footballer improprieties, and his replacement, Rio Ferdinand, having to step down due to injury. In spite of those blips in the road, there’s still a British pride in that it’s a sport played all over the world, and most of its origins trace back to this island nation. That should translate to them always having one of the best teams, but it hasn’t been that way for a while. No American sport (most of which are adapted from foreign sports, by the way) is so universally played.  

                   And what does the US think of it? Not a lot, really. Their teams have lately been doing almost as well as England, but because the tournament is not often hosted by a North or South American country (this year it’s South Africa), it means the matches are televised live in the middle of the night or early morning, and get ratings slightly better than the Fishing Channel. Even the one year (1994) when USA hosted the tournament, the bulk of the spectators at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena were waving Mexican flags. That wasn’t just because of a large number of Mexican transplants, (and current census figures speculate that California’s Latino population will become a majority by 2014) but also due to Mexico having a passion for the sport that the US didn’t have then, and still doesn’t.  

                    There are many reasons why the US support for soccer as a spectator sport is so minimal. The main one of course, is that they didn’t invent it, were late in adopting it as a participation sport, and thus are still looking for the way to make it as competitive and interesting as the four main sports. Which is the second reason, in that there is baseball in the summer, and basketball, hockey, and American football the rest of the year that soccer has to contend with, putting the NASL far in the distance, with about the same support as Women’s basketball. I can only name you one NASL team, the LA Galaxy, because that was the team that signed David Beckham. Oh, what a fleecing that was! The other attempt at a pro soccer league in the 1970s didn’t do any better, in spite of enticing Pele to come over. Americans have never bought into the notion that a game that ends 0-0 can still be exciting, another reason for the apathy. We want lots of scoring, and apparently, we don’t mind time-outs, even if the last three minutes on the clock of a US football or basketball game can take nearly an hour to tick off.

                     The US is missing out on a chance to show the world dominance they always seem intent on showing during the Olympics. It’s been rare that America hasn’t been among the top three for total medals there, and because that’s always been taken by too many Americans to equate with “See how great we are,” I always wind up rooting against my home country. Especially after the 1984 Olympics, hosted in Los Angeles, where the US needed a telescope to see the nearest competitor. The 1988 games were the first to feature basketball, and since it was off-season for all the pro players, the US team was able to employ its superstars, led by Michael Jordan, and win every game by nearly 100 points over other countries. I was embarrassed, as the US players and their fans put their superiority complex into overdrive. Rarely did a gold medal mean so little.

                      The only thing that could increase interest from Americans in soccer would be an actual World Cup win, something not likely this year, or in the near future. But woe to the rest of the world if it ever happens! It would be another feather in their cap, and once they realize the revenues taken in from merchandising a World Cup victory, they’d make every effort to never lose it again, even if cheating were involved. We like to do an “In your face” to the world when we get the chance, and on an international stage like that one, those Stars and Stripes would be waving everywhere.

                         Which will explain why, in this Saturday’s first match, coincidentally between England and US at Wembley Stadium in London, giving England a home court advantage they probably don’t need, I will be quietly rooting for the Red and White over the Red, White & Blue. Call me a traitor, but it’s an English tradition that the US needn’t tread upon. English Pride is at stake, after all, so please, US, just roll over and play dead, OK? Meantime I’ll be more interested in how the San Francisco Giants are doing.