USA Mature, But In A Sport They're Unsure The Name Of

Sitting in Trieste airport, I am beyond bored. I’ve finished my book, read the information pamphlet on Trieste airport, my ipod’s out of battery and I’m ploughing through a week old copy of the Daily Star for a second time, in the desperate hope that I missed an exciting article. My mind is numb with boredom.

Positioned away from the hustle and bustle of departures, I find a bench with a view of the adjoining buildings roof and once again I wearily turn to the Star in a vain attempt to pass the time. After ten minutes or so, a gentleman in a navy blue suit with a Tony Blair style open collared shirt perches on the bench two seats down from me and pretends to look through his suitcase in an attempt to find something to do.

After crossing and uncrossing his legs a couple of times, he leans over and asks in a soft American accent “have you finished with the soccer pages?” I pause for a moment and contemplate querying his use of the word soccer instead of football, but instead I just offer him a hollow smile and politely pass him the paper.

Despite having now lost my only form of entertainment (Joanne, 19 from Birmingham I miss you already) it does give me the opportunity to use my brain for the first time this morning and ponder the existence of the word soccer to describe a game that already has another name assigned to it.

The Americans popularised the name soccer upon the revival of the sport in the 1970s, as they had already given the name football to a game known as American football to the rest of the world. Also rather frustratingly the game mainly consists of throwing, catching and over the top body armour, so where the name football came from is another mystery.

Admittedly American football is a well established sport, as the National Football League, or NFL as it’s more popularly known, was established in 1920. However, the game from which it took its name is older still, with the first football league in England won in 1888 by Preston; with the first FA Cup won 18 years previous to that by Wanderers. So how did the founders of the American game come to the decision to call it football, when this name is already attached to another sport?

Perhaps by accident. Perhaps out of ignorance of other world sports. Or perhaps in the belief that the slow and methodical game largely played in Europe and South America just wouldn’t be as popular as their new mongrel of a sport. The reasons behind this decision are likely to remain unclear, but what is evident is that soccer is not a name to describe the game which is played worldwide and which can rightly call itself football.

If you feel you need further validation of the legitimacy and popularity of the old game with ten players who use their feet and one in between some sticks, against the Americas crash-bang-wollop of a game, then ask yourself how many countries competed in the last American football World Cup.

Despite our American friends’ inability to name a sport, the national football team has been re-born in the past few decades, as they have been transformed from naïve also-rans, into perennials of the FIFA top 20 world rankings. Whether this lofty position is justified is questionable considering the amount of tiny football nations they face in North America during their World Cup qualification campaign, but their ability to grind out a result has recently seen them knock European Champions Spain out of the Confederations Cup and narrowly lose 3-2 to a full strength Brazil side in the final. Both results were extremely admirable achievements for a team that could progress further if given the opportunity to play against a better standard of opposition on a regular basis.

A difficult team top play against, who play with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, the USA are a respected team in world football. They would however gain a lot more respect if they could remember to call the game by its proper name.

On the plus side though I’ve invented a new game. I’ve decided to call it baseball, but don’t worry I’ve also thought of a replacement name for the existing game. Its whackem. I wonder how that will be received?

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Tuesday June 30, 2009.
Tags: football, soccer