Will we have a crowd advantage in Brazil?

Discussion in 'USA Men' started by Jazzy Altidore, Feb 9, 2014.

  1. MPNumber9

    MPNumber9 Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think most folks can separate individuals from the actions of their home government. For that matter, many folks (including Brazilians) are pretty pissed at their own governments right now, anyway. I don't think folks readily associate individual Americans with the actions of their imperialist government. Like, no one hates individual North Koreans.
     
  2. Fernandont Scorres

    Jun 26, 2011
    USA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Our team will probably get a bit of local Brazilian support, especially if we were able to emerge out of the group. I think it will be like it is with most countries, the neutral will probably cheer on the underdog.
     
  3. tyguy

    tyguy Member

    Apr 11, 2006
    Cheeseland
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Freddie Ljungberg is a Slav?
     
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  4. FLRef

    FLRef Member

    Dec 11, 2010
    Florida
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Someone call John Kerry, we sure do have a lot of geopolitical experts here that could lend a hand to their country's foreign policy-making.
     
  5. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    He'd be the shortest 1 on record.
     
  6. jimpinetree

    jimpinetree Member

    Jul 23, 2013
    As a Brazilian who has lived in the US for over a decade, I have to say that this whole "the rest of the world hates the US" is nonsense, especially in soccer. If anything, the average Brazilian who can afford tickets to this world cup will have a very positive view of the US. The type of person who would let geopolitics influence their soccer preferences is not the type of person who would buy tickets for a FIFA event.

    The average Brazilian doesn't think much, if at all, about the US soccer team. Think about how US fans think about the Russian team, for example. What will determine how the average Brazilian thinks about the US team during the world cup will be a mixture of self interest (can the US knock off Germany or Portugal), and, more importantly, play style.

    If the 2009 confederations cup US team shows up, parking the bus and playing boring all defense soccer, the fans will likely turn against them fairly quickly. If the 2010 WC team shows up, playing aggressively and working hard (like against Slovenia), expect a lot of support. I went to a few confederations cup matches last year, where the crowd was even more likely to be Brazilian, and in "neutral" matches support for each side tended to ebb and flow depending on quality of play on the field. Only exceptions were Tahiti generally receiving a lot of support and Uruguay receiving some boos here and there.

    As an aside, I am from the city where the USA-England match happened in 1950. My father used to tell me about the town going crazy in support of the US, especially because of how likeable and approachable the team was. Either he or my uncle (I don't remember) got to hang out with the US team later that night, as the BYU men's basketball team was in town playing a friendly against the local team America, and the US soccer team was all in attendance. Apparently the US soccer players were particularly popular with the local ladies.
     
  7. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    It's a shame that movie "The Game Of Their Lives neglected to mention this popularity"
     
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  8. TheLostUniversity

    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Feb 4, 2007
    Greater Boston
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Will we have the advantage in local support??? NO.
     
  9. Fernandont Scorres

    Jun 26, 2011
    USA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Master O

    Master O Member+

    Jul 7, 2006
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sad, but true.
     
  11. Papillon Soo Soo

    Jan 17, 2012
    Everybody has their own reason when they are a neutral, hard to generalize: what result helps the host nation the most, attractive style of play, same religion, skin color, culture, for one's politics/against another's, distant relative who lives in that country, etc. Many may not even care about either team and just want to be entertained, and will make their minds up as the game reveals who is putting forth a more entertaining effort.

    I think the real deep unconditional hatred fans have for other national teams comes from frequent and balanced competition. If there is historic/cultural baggage on top of that, then that of course stokes the fire much brighter too. I have no doubt most Brazilians would pull for us in a matchup vs Argentina or Uruguay.
     
  12. lucio souza

    lucio souza Member

    Feb 17, 2014
    BRAZIL
    Club:
    Palmeiras Sao Paulo
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    As a Brazilian i guess the question should be answered in parts. USA first match against Ghana will be in Natal. During the World War II USA had a base in Natal. They are directly response for creating a name for one of the most popular kind of music here in Brazil (forró). The name forró came from the expression “for all” the Americans used to call a party they invited a lot of Brazilian people. For these game you should have some support. Against Portugal in Manaus (where I was born) half of the city is direct descendent of Portuguese people (including me). There it will be like you would facing Brazil. We are going to support Portugal and I expect 90% there will do the same. In these game Portugal will play as host. Finally USA will play Germany in Recife (near Natal). These is probably the only game USA will be in neutral arena or may be favored by the fans who don't want to see Germany go trough.


    So, who said we don't like USA? Beautiful country and people should not be hated, except for your international policy. By the way, there's a place in Manaus in which live about 2 or 3 thousand Americans. They are religious persons and live in a place called Purarequara. If you want to know more about, follow these link: http://amazoncurrents.homestead.com/AVM.html
     
  13. derinho

    derinho Member

    Jul 10, 2007
    Brazil
    Club:
    Nacional Manaus
    USA (also Venezuela, Bolivia) athletes were booed during the opening ceremony of Pan-Am games in 2007 by a crowd of RJ's middle-class people, a very similar kind of crowd which will attend WC games next summer.
     
  14. derinho

    derinho Member

    Jul 10, 2007
    Brazil
    Club:
    Nacional Manaus
    Come on buddy, not even the half of these "portuguese descent" can't tell the name of their so-called portuguese granpa or great-grandfather. People use to say they are granson or grant-grandsons of portuguese people just because they have Silva, Souza, Oliveira.. etc.. as their last names. They just want to look more euro. That's why they will root for Portugal.

    I'm from Manaus and I'm pretty sure that 80% of the population here are indians and african brazilian descents (people from here look a lot like Bolivia or Peru people). As MOST PART of brazilian population, those people real ascendancy is unknown, brazilian people is made of a mix of culture and races(europeans, amerindians, african, primarily) lost somewhere back in time, in the old colonial days .
     
  15. ATLfirefan

    ATLfirefan Member

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 8, 2005
    Norcross, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It's a World Cup. No crowed is extremely overwhelming in support of one team unless it's the host country or a neighboring country. Sure, there will be a lot of Portuguese supporters, but I doubt we'll see a crowd favor Ghana or Germany.
     
  16. Jazzy Altidore

    Jazzy Altidore BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Sep 2, 2009
    San Francisco
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    the Monroe doctrine has done more to safeguard South American independence than any thing South Americans have done for themselves
     
  17. Sandinista

    Sandinista Member+

    Apr 11, 2010
    Buenos Aires
    Club:
    Racing Club de Avellaneda
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    Is that what they teach you?

    How about the CIA fueled and sponsored "Plan Cóndor"? Was that for our independence too? Ever heard of it? Probably not.
     
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  18. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    I doubt many of us know of what the CIA was doing in Latin America during the Cold War. And more than likely most do not care otherwise we'd have disbanded it decades ago.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
     
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  19. Sandinista

    Sandinista Member+

    Apr 11, 2010
    Buenos Aires
    Club:
    Racing Club de Avellaneda
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    That i'm sure of.

    Of course, can't say I blame you, it must be hard keeping up with the influence you have over so many countries in the world (Some of it good, i guess). But it's nice to know these things before you start patronizing a whole continent saying you have done more for us than ourselves. At least when you mean you have done more than us in a good way...
     
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  20. gunnerfan7

    gunnerfan7 Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Jul 22, 2012
    Santa Cruz, California
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Really? I'm pretty sure that was just international d*ck-measuring. Unless my AP US and AP Gov. classes were full of crap, we didn't have nearly enough military power or influence to actually back up what we said... We eventually did a couple of generations later, but not right after the War of 1812...

    What's the statute of limitations on all of the shenanigans that we did in Central/South America? Cause it's been ~30 years since, for example, the Iran/Contra affair. Also, it always amazes me that people get confused/angry when a country tries to influence another country in order to protect/improve its own interests. Literally every country. In. The. World. Does. That. The Euro skeletons in the closet are just less bloody -to use a colorful metaphor for the passage of time- than ours (our comparatively few skeletons, I might add).
     
  21. Sandinista

    Sandinista Member+

    Apr 11, 2010
    Buenos Aires
    Club:
    Racing Club de Avellaneda
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    #71 Sandinista, Feb 18, 2014
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2014
    Hey, i was just responding to a guy talking about the Monroe doctrine of 1823 (of course it still carries on after all those years, but that can't be what he was meaning when talking about S. America) and making a rather unfair statement. So don't get mad if I bring up 30 years old shenanigans...

    I like and agree your take on this though. US just influences other countries to protect its own interests and that's that. And every country in a position to do it does it too, that's also fair and true. You don't brag about US influence on countries "for their own good", like they're supposed to own something to them. That's refreshing to hear.
     
  22. MPNumber9

    MPNumber9 Member+

    Oct 10, 2010
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Calling dismissal of international law, war crimes and human rights violations "shenanigans" is why foreigners hate Americans. But hey, it's been 30 years. Get over it.
     
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  23. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    Solid point. US leaders in the past have been very duplicitous when it comes to certain issues especially foreign policy. We're very self-serving as are many nations, self interest comes first (quite sad that human rights go out the window) to secure something for less $$$.
     
  24. LouisianaViking07/09

    Aug 15, 2009
    The Euros did it for centuries, we did it to such an effect that the later half of the 20th century might have outdid any good we did in the 1st half. Never hear anyone complaining about European imperialism and its lingering effects because the US govt stumbles in foreign relations by disregarding UN rules and thus takes all the heat (all of it is deserved of course). But as you said, it's all comparative.
     
  25. gunnerfan7

    gunnerfan7 Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Jul 22, 2012
    Santa Cruz, California
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Ugh. Curse my slow typing speed and the stupid school WiFi. I actually had a well-thought out and 4 paragraph long response, but that's gone now...

    I wasn't trying to be flippant. It's just that we're on a soccer board and I wasn't sure how far we were going to go with this conversation...

    I'm an American, and on a personal level, I'm more of an optimist, so I'll be the first to admit that I would be biased towards support of US policy abroad. However, I'm also of the opinion that almost all foreign policy is in a kind of grey area. Sure, the Contra affair may have been terrible, as was the seemingly random support/toppling of various Central American regimes, but by and large, most of the policy decisions that the US has made have been overall 'good', and the reason the US gets so much crap for the 'bad' ones is only because people have only recently started covering 'bad' (in a moral sense) foreign policy decisions. In addition, decisions that involve conflict are immediately labeled as 'bad', which in some cases is unfair. Take both the Korean and Vietnam War's for example. The Korean War stopped the other half of the Korean Peninsula from going into a modern dark-age. The Vietnam War was an attempt to stop the "domino effect" of Communism in Southeast Asia (an effect that sounds silly nowadays, I'll admit). Said attempt that ultimately failed, and was followed by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and a host of other pretty despicable leaders in the region.
     
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