Adopting an American ideal could set England free at World Cup

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jun/28/american-ideal-england-world-cup

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Americans are really enjoying the World Cup. It appears pretty much everyone is enjoying the World Cup, with the possible exceptions of Fabio Capello and Luis Suárez’s agent, though on the ground in Brazil it is evident that supporters of the USA and Mexico are enjoying it more than most. That is not to say Latin countries such as Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica and Colombia are not having a good time; of course they are. Apart from the grumbles about ticket pricing and availability that led Chile fans to attempt to break into one of their group games, the relative proximity of Brazil has made it easy for thousands of people from neighbouring countries to follow their teams in a way they could not do on a different continent.

So South America is a good place for a World Cup, no question. But most Chile, Argentina and Colombia fans just look like fans. They run to replica shirts and maybe a little bit of face paint on matchdays. Even Brazil supporters have proved relatively sedate.

They go for green and gold outfits, some of the girls in quite skimpy ones to attract the attention of the television cameras. But while the World Cup in Brazil was expected to be some sort of colourful carnival, and just about is despite some uneven Brazil performances and all too evident economic hardship in most of the venues, the vivacity of the hosts is being regularly upstaged by contributions from the next continent north.

Mexico supporters are always good value at World Cups. They go the whole hog and then some more. They love their country, adore their team, and are even happy to play up to their national stereotype. One of the few amusing variations on the now tiresome Keep Calm and Do Whatever motif are T-shirts bearing the slogan: We’re Mexicans, we don’t want to keep calm. In South Africa four years ago, when the nights were freezing cold and the France substitutes huddled under a blanket during the group game in Polokwane, more than a few Mexican supporters gamely attended the match in wrestling outfits comprising nothing more than a mask and a leotard. Wrestling outfits are plentiful here, too, but so are sombreros, comedy moustaches, proud reconstructions of Aztec costumes and, perhaps most vivid of all, borrowings from the day of the dead tradition. Nothing beats walking into a World Cup game next to a skeleton or a grinning skull.

Yet if Mexico have the most scope for fancy dress, USA supporters match them in their love of the national flag and enthusiasm for promoting it. The most striking USA outfits here include Uncle Sam, the American Eagle (yes, feathers), Captain America (obviously) and any number of Statues of Liberty, though almost everyone attending games will wear the flag in the form of Stars and Stripes shorts, socks, bandanas, even bikinis. There was a girl wearing a Stars and Stripes bikini in a Recife restaurant one night. It wasn’t quite all she was wearing, from memory there seemed to be stars and stripes shorts and some kind of hat as well, but it was her allegiance she was flaunting rather than her figure.

Americans, you may have noticed, are very fond of letting everyone know they are American, and though soccerball may not be their natural game the World Cup allows an outlet for national pride on an international stage that few other sports can offer. Many USA fans – not all, some can be as anoraky as any European – will cheerfully admit to not knowing a great deal about football history, tactics or tradition, and not being greatly interested either. It is the coming together to support their team that they enjoy, the pride they can share in being American. If they are sometimes loud and overbearing who cares? So are Liverpool and Chelsea fans. This is football, it’s allowed.

It is easy to feel a little envious in the face of other countries’ automatic, uncomplicated allegiance to their nationhood. Dutch fans love dressing up in orange, while Germans go for the understated approach, frequently wearing club colours, knowing the strength of the Bundesliga speaks for itself.

England is beginning to feel a little left out. The strength of the Premier League does not translate to the world stage. The cross of St George is now an ambiguous symbol with negative overtones: it is not an emblem to rally universal support. The union flag may be destined for the scrapheap if the union is voted out, so what is left? Beefeater costumes? Bowler hats? It has been suggested that England’s poor performance in Brazil may be due to a larger crisis of confidence. As a nation, the English are no longer sure of ourselves or our place in the world.

There may be something in that, even if it implies Wayne Rooney and the rest spend more time reading newspapers and watching Panorama than they actually do. The same logic, however, would have the USA favourites for this tournament, with Mexico runners-up. It cannot all be about confidence: football ability is important too.

If England can work on that, at least some of the confidence may return. Otherwise they are destined to keep turning up at the grand fancy dress ball in everyday clothes, leaving before the end and generally being the guests no one remembers seeing.

Sympathetic or otherwise, we’re losing our appetite for Suárez

There are two ways to look at the Luis Suárez situation. One is that biting is unforgivable and inexcusable, and a third offence ought to be the limit of anyone’s patience. As Dave Whelan, Wigan’s opinionated but prescient chairman said a year ago during the player’s ban for munching Branislav Ivanovic, Liverpool would be well advised to sell him as quickly as possible before he bites someone else.

The other is a more sympathetic, human response based on the now considerable evidence that Suárez cannot help himself. He is not being petulant or spiteful, he actually is like that wounded creature at the end of the horror movie that knows it is doomed by its own nature. On such a basis it is possible to feel sorry for the striker, certainly over the brusque way Fifa dealt with his removal from their competition, and one can almost understand the pleadings from South America that Suárez is not actually a criminal but an over-competitive and underprivileged individual with more than a few problems.

Almost. Suárez is far from the only footballer in the world without a university degree or a comfortable upbringing, but he is the game’s first serial biter. If that is the compulsion he has been resisting all season he did remarkably well to have enough concentration left over for the football, never mind win player of the year awards. His World Cup was going swimmingly too until he was undone in one thoughtless moment but you could tell from his immediate reaction that he knew the mask had slipped.

While harsh, the punishment is defensible, it is the impact on Liverpool that seems disproportionate. In theory he will be available in November, though the possibility must be considered that his career in England is effectively over. He has rescued his reputation once, quite impressively, but it will be difficult to go through the whole rebuilding operation again now that Uruguay and, to some extent, Suárez have made it plain they regard the English as his persecutors.

Liverpool have given him every support, sometimes when it was hardly warranted. They have done nothing to deserve that. But too much has already been said. One cannot help but feel that this singular saga will have to end with Suárez taking his appetite and his persecution complex somewhere else to be misunderstood.