The Euro may be in trouble, but The Euros are looking strong

Welcome to Euro 2012. If you have, like me, been voraciously consuming the first two rounds of group games then you know how great this tournament can be. If you are just now catching the Euro fever you may well be arriving at the perfect time. Not only are you perfectly poised to get a feel for what’s been going on and prep yourself for the knockout stages, but perhaps more importantly, you have (hopefully) been spared the most painful moments of Alexi Lalas and Michael Ballack trying to debate each other in the ESPN studio. Woof. It’s not pretty. But on the bright side, I guess that makes this the perfect tournament to view as you have plenty of time during the half to eat, use the facilities, or talk trash to your friends without missing out on anything.

 In any event, I thought I might resurrect this blog as a venue to share some of my thoughts on the matches as well as some of the surrounding social issues that are at play in the way this year’s tournament and the nations competing therein are treated in the media and understood generally.

Since I am a notoriously verbose and occasionally belabored writer, especially by internet standards, I will try to make this first entry short and sweet.

Let’s start with the most recent match, shall we?


ENGLAND 3 Sweden 2.

Yes, ENGLAND needed to be in all caps. Why? Because I will not shy away from my undying love for The Three Lions. And I unabashedly rooted for them today like I always do.* This love leads me to do irrational things like wear my lucky “Cambridge, England” shirt (which interestingly enough displays a Union Jack rather than St. George’s Cross, but more on that whole British vs. English thing another time) AND my Three Lions jacket even though wearing a jacket in our sauna top floor Brooklyn walk up in June is a bit daft.** Oh, did I mention that neither of these items will be laundered until they fail me? Don’t worry though; I only wear them during the actual match. Two games, two results, and I’m still feeling so fresh and clean like OutKast in 2001.

My Three Lions jacket

I should also note here that my England fandom leads to the joyous and boisterous celebration of goals. I was watching the match alone so today’s celebrations tended towards the uninhibited and shamelessly ridiculous side of things. Otherwise known as the side of you that only comes out when dancing in front of your bedroom mirror or singing in the shower. Carroll’s header from Gerrard’s cross produced some running punches Billy Blanks would have been proud of. Walcott’s fortuitous floater after the corner brought out Pete Townshendesque around-the-world arm swings like those seen here, and Walcott’s brilliant, creative run and pass for Welbeck’s brilliant back heel elicited an almost involuntary, giddy yelp that I am pleased was not recorded.***

Class. Here is to hoping that the Walcott - Welbeck connection will provide many more such moments in the future

Despite my unwavering faith in England and Roy Hodgson, I have to say that for actual Englishmen (and women) this team certainly seems to be the stray puppy that won them over. The normally cutthroat English media and the confusingly negative England diehards seem to have generally nice and measured things to say, a stark contrast to the usual heaven-or-hell paradox that often surrounds England at major tournaments. Perhaps it is a case of love versus lust, in a footballing way, of course. While this squad, and especially its workaday manager, did not initially capture the imagination of the country, they have established hallmarks of hard work and discipline to build from. They also project a positive team spirit that endears whereas the oft-heralded-only-to-be-maligned “golden generation” teams tantalized, but ultimately left England fans wanting. Or maybe we can just suffice it to say that actually believing you are the underdog is kind of a nice change. Whatever it is, I like it this way.

A note on the football:
My biggest take away from this match was that if England need to open up and attack, they can. After watching England pre-tournament against Belgium, and then against the French in the opening round of the group, I was fairly confident that with Hodgson preaching shape and discipline England would have a strong defense that would give them a fighting chance in every game they played. And despite conceding three goals in two Euro matches so far,**** it must be said that England have yet to be carved up at the back.***** I still hold faith with the defense and accept that staying true to that game plan is likely England's best route to winning matches, but I was very pleased with the offense produced by England’s young guns today. The threats they posed make England more balanced and certainly more fun to watch. I know there are a lot of teams with stronger defenses than Sweden’s, but, putting Rooney to one side, if England needed to get a goal late on in a match it seems that chucking on Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain on either wing with Welbeck up front and Ashley Young in the hole would give most teams fits... talk about pace to burn. I was especially glad to see Walcott produce on a big stage and just hope he can stay fit for the rest of the tournament.****** .

I hope to be back with more musings on some of the subplots you may have missed (or not) in coming days. Thanks.



Notes:
* Well, except when they play my home country, but that is rarely a conflict of interest.
** Ok, ok, I will quit with the anglophilic tone. Maybe.
*** I am not giving you the Gary Neville link. We sounded completely different.
****and even if France were content to play for a draw.
*****Nasri’s shot was a good strike from outside the 18-yard box, one of Sweden’s goals came from a scramble after a free kick and the other was a free header, which looked more like a miscommunication than a permanent issue.
******Hard to believe he is still only 23.

Why I'm in Love

Football is not my first love. And I suppose it's likely that it won't be my last, but with that said, I don't think that I have ever had a more clear understanding of why I love something in my life. Usually our passions or diversions aren't reasoned and that is part of what makes them enjoyable and liberating. During the latter part of my university career, however, I really started buying into the Socratic idea that "the unexamined life is not worth living." A number of my friends have pointed out that this statement has its limits, but I am not writing to discuss that here (I tend to be tangental, trying to restrain myself); this is, after all, a blog about the beautiful game. What is relevant is that this need to examine, for better or worse, has found its way into almost every part of my life, even into my hobbies. Since my real immersion into the world of football began at roughly the same time as this intellectual/philosophical development, my engagement with the sport has been especially open to thoughtful analysis and comparison with other things that I either mightly enjoy now or felt a similar love for at other points in my life (hip-hop is one good example; basketball is another). This arrangement has produced the following list of reasons that I am in love with/things that I love about football.*

(Note: Numbered, but not to denote any kind of hierarchy)

1.Promotion and Relegation: The System and the resultant battles
-No tanking for draft picks
-Makes bad teams interesting

2.The World is our Transfer Pool

3.Distinction between League Champions and Cup Champions aka The Season Actually Matters

4.Qualification for Elite Cup Tournaments

5.The World Game and International Competition

6.Being in the "Bubble" Phase of the relationship - All The Intrigue/Drama I don't know I hate yet. (a massive copout, but I am still putting it. Have you seen this episode of Parks and Rec?)

7.90 minute matches that actually last 90 minutes

8.The Card System

9.Trading Shirts After Matches

10. Bad Blood and the Euro Head Grab

11. Feet

12. Rich Cultural Ties and Analysis

13. "As a spectacle it offers space for inspired individuals and dogged collectives, creates instantaneously comprehensible narratives, operates in a perpetually changing three-dimensional space and balances the exhilartion of flow with the orgasmic punctuation of the goal." - David Goldblatt

Since this basically devolved into a list waiting to be explained, I will compensate by telling a story that touches on a lot of these factors. Earlier tonight I watched the United States' Men's National Team** take on Mexico in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. It was, in a lot of ways a very exciting game to watch and had quite few crazy turns (4 first half goals and 3 first half substitutions between the sides). Ultimately the U.S. lost 4-2 after taking a 2-0 lead in the first half, (an occurence which I am wont to blog about in itself -- I may very well undertake such a pursuit tomorrow) but my enduring memory of this game will be watching the second goal the U.S. scored.

After rushing home from my nephew's 5th birthday and getting inside 4 minutes into the match (just soon enough to see first goal -- Bradley's header from an Adu corner), I was now standing in front of the TV in my parents' living room, delighted that we had gotten off to a good start and trying to get a feel for the tactics and lineups each team (but mainly the U.S.) was employing. I was watching the match, like I had watched all of the other team USA Gold Cup matches, in Spainish on Univison.*** In true nerd fashion I was wearing my U.S. Soccer T Shirt and was basically just way too excited/invested/giddy about this whole thing. Then it happened.

My new favorite U.S. player Freddy Adu (most creative guy we have on the ball) made a move on the right wing and made a great centering pass to Clint Dempsey just outside the box. As Adu hit the ball to Dempsey I could see Landon Donovan begin an incisive run in the box and I knew we were going to score. I just knew it. I could see it. I was ecstatic. Dempsey played the through ball to Donovan who took one touch to the left and buried his shot to the keeper's right in the back of the net.

Judging from my reaction you would have thought I had scored the goal. I screamed about as loud as possible. Several times. I am not totally sure what I said. Some unintelligble sounds, "YES!!!!!!", and "WHAT A GOAL!!!" are all candidates. I leapt in the up and then took off full sprint into the kitchen and pounded the counter several times, and then the table several times and then ran back into the living room, leapfrogged a couch and made a dramatic fist pump. It was nirvana. Or joy. Or Delirium. Or something. Whatever it was, it didn't last long but it was more than good. It was perfect.

I can only recall one other time I have felt that emotion in relation to sports and I am pretty confident that I was not even 11 when that happened. I thought I had entirely gotten over feeling united with a team or with other supporters, but football seems to trump my cynicism somehow. In addition, between ages 11 and my current 25 I have watched an inestimable amount of SportsCenter. So much so in fact that I rarely am awed by anything I see happen in sport. Fortunately the virtuosity of football still has some transcendence for me. In this case the build up play had gone from middling to perfect in matter of seconds and I had watched it unfold, eyes widening I am sure, realizing how perfect a play it was, realizing that it was coming together right, feeling that I as a supporter was somehow a part of the team and that my hurrying to get home and adorning myself in the team's colors somehow helped to score that goal. Or at least knowing that when it went in I would celebrate like it did. It was beautiful. It was, like I said, perfect. Maybe this explanation doesn't really stand to reason, but it does stand to my own examination. And you can't really blame me. After all, I am in love.



*I have been meaning to write this post forever, but I am better at generating ideas than content. That said I have opted to just stick to a list with no/short descriptions that will hopefully turn into individual posts over the coming weeks. There is really too much to say.

**I'm sure I didn't need to clarify but did anyway I believe both the U-17s and the USWNT are in tournaments right now, you can catch all the Women's World Cup coverage on the ESPN family of networks if you so desire.

*** At first this was a mild inconvenience and left me wishing that I owned a subscription to Fox Soccer Channel. In the end I loved brushing up on my Spanish.

Who Loves the Champions' League?

In a word: Nike.

I am sure that the athletic apparel giants are delighted with the results the past two days as the big name clubs they sponsor emerged victorious in both semi-finals. First FC Barcelona managed, despite plenty of ill-tempered exchanges and controversy, to slip past rivals Real Madrid in one semi-final (more on those two soon) and then today the biggest club in England, Manchester United, handily finished off their over-matched German opponents, Schalke 04.

Though the brand war between between Adidas (not coincidentally the sponsor/equipment provider for both Madrid and Schalke) and Nike may not seem as heated in the U.S. as it was in the mid to late 90s, when Adidas briefly threatened Nike's Air Jordan-induced hegemony on the basketball court*, it has certainly not died**. In fact, the inverse scenario has been true on the football pitch, as Nike started in the mid nineties to pull out all the stops, including the clandestine inking of a massive sponsorship deal with the Brazilian national team, in hopes of breaking Adidas' choke hold on the world football market. Fifteen years later that battle is as intense as ever.*** Nike has made some huge strides but is still struggling to end the dominance of the competitor that has remained the world's premier football company since founder Adi Dassler introduced screw-in studs for the West German national team in the mid 50s. With that established, this is a significant coup for the American company, as they now will have sole possession of center stage advertising in one of the most watched television events in the world.****

Well, almost sole possession.

Nike's plan of attack in conquering world soccer has been clear from the beginning, quality over quantity. "We may not get a lot, but we will get what sells most." It's a strategy that has been largely successful. In addition to long term sponsorship deals with the U.S. national team (the home market)and Brazil (perennial favorites at international tournaments, base of an international diaspora, international following), Nike has dealt with other notable national teams like Holland (runners up in South Africa) and Mexico (the other home market). Of equal or perhaps greater import, however, are the conspicuous swooshes worn by some of the most recognizable club sides in the world like Manchester United, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Celtic. Since these teams play far more often than national teams do, they offer more consistent opportunities to cash in. Add to that individual sponsorship deals with big names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and the now aging Ronaldinho and if you're Nike, you have quite the stable of advertising thoroughbreds for all seasons. However, even when rolling out a seemingly all-Nike affair like the Champions' League final in question, things are not quite so simple or so one-sided. For example, the UEFA Champions' League uses only specially made and officillay licensed Adidas match balls*****,so the competition won't be out of the picture completely. But even with that accommodation Nike probably feels pretty good about itself. The more troubling matter is when individual and team sponsorships collide. For example, when Lionel Messi, undoubtedly the most famous player in the world, walks onto the Wembley pitch for Barca, his kit will be made by Nike, but his boots will unmistakably evidence his personal sponsorship deal with Adidas. No doubt both sides will try to make the most they can out of/off of that. So even though Nike won't have to worry about the result of the match****** it can't quite win them all, either.







*And other American sports where Nike had successfully used the same big-star marketing approach (i.e. Baseball with Ken Griffey Jr.). This was an especially interesting time on the hardwood as Fila (Grant Hill) and Reebok (Allen Iverson) also attempted to carve out part of the basketball market for themselves, but the big competition remained between Nike (Jordan, the incumbent; Barkley; Kidd; etc.) and Adidas (Kobe Bryant, later Tracy McGrady). Certainly only Nike sought to get into the world football market, where they easily flew past smaller players in that arena like Puma, Diadora, etc.

** Seen any commercials lately? In addition to ensemble casts of sports stars, Adidas, though not the only one using this move, has been especially aggressive in trying to cross over to pop-culture figures to boost American sales (Katy Perry, B.O.B). I could go on, but I won't.

*** Watch any commercials during the last World Cup?

**** In the US, The Champions' League Final live from Wembley can be viewed on Fox with coverage starting at 2pm eastern time on Saturday, May 28.

***** Fortunately Adidas has a much better track record with these than with their specially designed world cup balls, like the ill-fated Jubalani last summer.

****** In the 1998, 2002, and 2010 World Cups Nike sponsored sides faced off against Adidas sponsored competition in what added a commercial aspect of globalization to the sporting one most readily noticed. In '98 and 2010 Adidas won (France, which is now sponsored by Nike, over Brazil; Spain over The Netherlands). In 2002 Nike got the better of the deal with Brazil beating the Germans.