There is a large community from Turkey in France, but even w/o that: I recall the treatment one of the Williams sisters was given in a tournament in France a couple of weeks ago (all game long-and this is tennis, which is not supposed to be too rowdy)....At least in Korea there was some Americans supporting and some Koreans who were "playing the part" of US fans (every WC participant had these "supporters") SO how will it be? Are there a lot of Americans living in France to cheer the US on?
Serena and Venus are arrogant bitches. They get booed here in the states. Agassi, Capriati, Rubin and other American tennis players are treated well and quite liked there. I am going to the confeds cup, and fron what I understand, there are about 500 of us travelling to see the matches, and probably more Euro-based Yanks... That being said, we'll be the minority in the stadium, and if there are any problems, it will be with the Turkish fans...Brazilian and Cameroonian fans are more likely to party with you than start trouble... i'm not too worried
Differnt situation, she was being a jerk in the match and then fans got on her, many feel she deserved what she got.
I don't see why there would be any problems with the turkish fans. Turkey has even got a good relationship with the US.
You mean their government does, only because ours buys them off. Why don't you go down to Istanbul and start waving an American flag and see what happens.
Our gov't buys theirs, the average Turk understands that as well as we do, I don't think that will be problem.
I think the turks may have been against the Iraq war, but I don't think the turks in general have anything against americans. Why would they? SABuffalo786, I think a lot of people think of Turkey as being a underdeveloped and slightly fanatic Islamic country, but look at theese pictures. I think I could wave an american flag there without getting hurt. Don't the pictures look like they were taken in an american city? http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/im/df/193493/ http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/im/df/138299/ http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/im/df/175563/
Anti-Americanism seems have been running pretty high in Turkey recently. For example, in a recent poll, only 15% of Turks said that they a favorable opinion of the US. See: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=185 http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/185.pdf I have no idea what it means for crowd reactions and behavior at the Confed Cup, but there seems to be a lot of hostility there in general.
Well, then this is a perfect time for our Yanks In France to offer a little football diplomacy. Even if there are only a few fans who return to their countries with a better view of Americans, it's better than nothing.
I doubt the crowds will be that bad. Alot of the people don't view this as an important tournament, so I don't see them getting to worked up over the US. As for the Serena Williams situation. She was the favorite coming off of multiple major wins. Sometimes the crowds like to get behind the underdog against the heavy favorite. The fact that she has a poor attitude doesn't help.
Too bad G.W. and Cheney aren't in the starting lineup. I can see it now--their kits would have "Haliburton" stiched across the front. Caro Francesco
cant we go back to talking about how the williams sis' are biatches and stop the political talk? then i can join in
Yeah, really. Americans are the quickest to spring politics on foreigners when it comes to sports. Not to say that others don't, but come on. Born here, raised here. I am allowed to say that.
How many people in the WORLD actually have a favorable opinion of the US? Hell i'm american and at this point politically I don't have a favorable opinion of the US.
I don't understand why everybody thinks the french treat americans like crap. I've had some problems in France, but i doubt it was because i was american. There are rude people everywhere. I've had plenty of pleasant experiences with french people too. The one thing i hate is when people say, "i know they can speak english, but just don't to me because i'm american, how rude." Well how rude is it to go to a foreign country and expect them to speak YOUR language? French people are very nice, now can we stop with the ethnocentrism on this board.
More than you might think, although opinions have gotten somewhat more negative overall in the last few years. I'd rather not start a political discussion on this group, but you can look at the links I posted to see how Turkey currently compares to some other countries.
Actually, no. They've been extremely friendly to me on three trips. There have been interesting polls recently where, it seems, the great majority of dislike for the US is linked to the current administration. I mean the French, perhaps better than many other Europeans, have a first-hand understanding of just how different Texans can be, being that Lance Armstrong is as household a name as is George Bush there.
Nope. There is a big D-Day celebration going on in Normandy right now. My coworker's son is in the Airborne, currently in France for the celebration, and he's a goddamn hero right now. Kids asking for autographs, strangers buying him beer, etc etc.
No, just Americans that call them frogs, you rust belt, floodplain cracker (see, isn't that charming as well?) I wouldn't expect it to be as bad as in, say, Athens, Azteca or even a peaceloving burg like Costa Rica.
That kind of stuff is too childish for them I'm sure. Nothing out of the ordinary. Too bad, it could be good PR for soccer here. They don't have Fox news and dopes like ORiely and Hannity as ministers of hate.