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Ghana U20 - Source: Reuters -
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Did you hear that big sigh of relief? It was the US sports media after Ghana knocked the Yanks out of the World Cup.
Phewweeeeee.
The American sports media and football (soccer that is) go as well together as oil and water ... or should that be BP oil and Gulf of Mexico water (When is Obama going to don a scuba suit and plug that damn pipe himself?)
The New York Post best summed up US World Cup sentiment with this headline after the Ghana loss: "This Sport Is Stupid Anyways".
With the Yanks exiting South Africa, US sports columnists and reporters were ecstatic they could return to their usual gigs.
You know ... writing about whether the New York Yankees will repeat as baseball WORLD series champions or debating if LeBron James accepts a $US96 million, six-year deal with the New York Knicks or Los Angeles Clippers, will the team be good enough to beat reigning basketball WORLD champs, the Los Angeles Lakers.
The American public proved to be big supporters of the World Cup, with US TV rights holder, ESPN, enjoying record ratings. But various segments of the US media largely didn't want to know about it or dropped the boot into the World Cup.
And the US, with former President Bill Clinton and Hollywood glamour boy Brad Pitt heading the charge, is lobbying to host the World Cup in 2018 or shock, horror, the 2022 World Cup that Australia is hellbent on winning.
Here's how columnists from US newspapers, big and small, described the World Cup:
Wall Street Journal: "To be sure, soccer is the world's most popular sport, but rather in the same way that one might call rice the world's most popular food. In many places, it's all that's available or that most people can afford. In fact, in terms of soccer supremacy, we may as well call the World Cup the Western Europe-South American Cup, since the only seven countries ever to win it have been from those two continents."
Connecticut's Hartford Courant: "I've been watching the World Cup, trying really hard to capture some of the enthusiasm for soccer that has the rest of the world in its grip. It hasn't been going well.
"The fact that the United States was eliminated in the Sweet Sixteen didn't help, but I think the major reason I'm not responding is the game itself. I just don't get it.
"... How come there are no timeouts? Hasn't it occurred to anyone that if you want soccer to catch on in the USA the game needs to provide regular breaks for beer drinkers to go to the bathroom?"
"When the game is over, why do players exchange shirts? Is part of the price of losing having to do the other guy's laundry?"
Missouri's Joplin Globe: "The US team has been eliminated from the World Cup and we no longer have to pretend we understand soccer. Frankly, I'm glad. We as a nation aren't very good at pretending we like stuff. For a while many years ago, we pretended that we liked the metric system. Turns out, we didn't. Then we pretended we liked foreign films. Turns out, we didn't. Then, we pretended we liked tall Swedish blonde women. Turns out ... wait ... maybe that's not a good example."
Alaska's Kodiak Mirror: "Believe me, I have tried to give soccer a try. I've tried to understand why a game ends in a tie. I've been told it makes the group stage more interesting, but to me it's a waste of 90 minutes if the outcome ends 0-0. I've tried to understand the lingo. Why don't they just call it a field instead of a pitch? How about uniforms rather than kits?"
