A surprise goal by the USA in the 1950 World Cup shocked the UK. Radio announcers reported the score as an error or a teletype misprint. 1-10 USA – UK. They were wrong. It’s been 60 years since the two teams met in the World Cup and yesterday the USA escaped a loss to England thanks to a goalie error. My British friends complained it was luck. I quoted Seneca, ““Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
It was a lucky goal.
And so what?
No one in America cared about the most important tie since Gore-Bush.
Friday I was sitting in a Korea restaurant on West 48th Street. I was supposed to be at work, but this is the World Cup and skipping out on work is a time-honored tradition amongst football fans. I sat with Koreans, Mexicans, and other 3rd Worlders. Our concentration was locked on the screen. France versus Uruguay. I’m profoundly anti-Frog since Patrick Henry’s hand-ball goal against the Irish. It was the afternoon game. The deli was getting to close for business, but every minute an American wandered into the store for a Coke or chips or something else guaranteed to maintain their girth. They walked past the TV screen only shifting their eyes to see the reason for our enthrallment. Their interest bordered on coma, but football is like that for America.
Foreign.
We even call it something else.
Soccer.
Let someone else be # 1.
It’s probably communist and we wouldn’t want that.
Not in the Land of the Freaked.