Fashionable Anglophilia

Well, everyone else has talked about the World Cup draw, so why not put down my own late observations about it?

The US, my team, got what should be a decent draw. While Slovenia and Algeria are not bad teams, and knocked out some very good teams to get where they are, they’re not nearly as daunting opponents as they could be and the US team should be able to beat them. And there’s our other opponent- England.

Football fandom, in the US and elsewhere, always has a degree of Anglophilia. No matter how we all try to deny it, it’s England that we look to. Personally, my first experiences with football as opposed to kid’s soccer were all English, and they were connected to other English obsessions I already had.

England was a place I was fascinated by since I was 8. I stayed in a middle-school choir that made me miserable because at the end of the year we had a trip to London scheduled. As I grew my favorite things were all English. My favorite bands were English, my favorite books were by English writers. They were the ones that brought me to football in the first place by presenting it as something different from American sports. Robert Smith rented a movie theater in France so he could watch the England national team play. How could I not want to do the same?

Football is long connected to Anglophilia. After all, as they’re quick to remind us, it was the English who came up with the game and sent it around the world. Their imprint is everywhere. The manager in Spain is known as “Mister”. Ultras groups all over Europe unfurl signs and banners in English seemingly more than they do their native languages. The curious draw of England is everywhere.

Football fandom in the US is no different. If anything, we’re more Anglophilic, and far more open about it. For a long time England has been almost synonymous with football.

England is easier. England speaks our language, knows us. The intertwining of popular culture between the two countries means that it’s much more accessible. It’s just foreign enough without being too intimidating. Through exposure to English music, television, and movies, we feel like we understand England already. When we want to get into football, for many of us, it’s the first place to go. It’s easy to read the news and, most of all, interact with other fans. While these days it’s by no means impossible to interact with fans from other leagues, with the English it’s natural. It’s the best place to start. And it keeps its mark on us- we can’t seem to have a game without an English accent announcing something somewhere. It’s almost legitimacy in and of itself.

So for probably a majority of us, it’s the English national team that’s our second (or first) team. And the US is going to play them. Even though there’s a certain snobbishness in me that says I’ve moved on from my England-idolizing days, it’s still exciting to be up against the team that we know best. It will bring the biggest ratings of any soccer game ever televised. The hype from ESPN will be unbelievable.

If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d argue that ESPN pulled this draw together. Not only do we get England, but it’s more likely than not the US will go farther in the tournament than in 2006. It’s everything they could have wanted.

As for me? Well, I’m just wondering how I’m going to juggle work with a World Cup. Because I want to watch everything. I’d better not be on the job when it’s time for Brazil v. Ivory Coast…