"I believe that we will win" -- they're using the US World Cup chant #Ferguson— Erin Delmore (@ErinDelmore) August 20, 2014
Its a decent crowd chant (for soccer teams), but what is going on in Ferguson is anything but decent. Overlapping the two is a reflection on how far soccer has permeated into American society. Chanting beliefs after a homicide, riots, police militarization, lawlessness, racial politics is in its own category. Hopefully, in this case, the pen (the collective voice of the people) will prove mightier than the sword.
How do we know they got it from soccer? Wasn't the chant being used in college football and/or basketball games before U.S. soccer fans started using it?
of course it well predates the world cup. it was apparently first used for Navy football, but was first popularized nationally by Utah State basketball fans (Utah State's winning team/losing team chant is way better).
Shame on us for our lack of soccer specific creativity in chant formulation. Nothing organic and/or original about taking someone else's chant and making it your own. Ferguson residents using it won't bring them any closer to achieving a solution to the social & racial profiling, the blatant paranoia and the violence that has marred their hometown. But if it gives them a sense of unity, then by all means, so be it.