Monday 14 June 2010

A draw's a win, right?

Here's one US tabloid's take on their team's battling draw with England, via Paul Flynn MP's blog. It's a Murdoch paper, by the way.


Like most English people, Americans find it difficult to distinguish between Britain and England. Bunker Hill was the first engagement of the US War of Independence, in Boston. The British won, but lost half their troops. 

4 comments:

Ewarwoowar said...

Oh Vole. Silly Vole. I'm amazed at how many people over here have fallen for it, but then I suppose college football isn't too famous over here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_football_rivalry#Notable_games

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/blog/2010/06/did_usa_win_11_well_harvard_be.html

The Plashing Vole said...

Er, Ewar, it's a real headline from a real newspaper - as the second article you linked to makes clear. But it is a reference to the Harvard/Yale match (and no, nobody here cares about American Football except you). You weirdo.

Ewarwoowar said...

I'll phone up the NFL commissioner and tell him not to bother with those games at Wembley anymore then as nobody here cares :(

It is indeed a real headline from a real paper. The point people are missing is that they look at that and think "ZOMG those Yanks are dumb how can 1-1 be a win ROFLMAO!!!!!one!!!!!!111!!!" when really it's a clever spin on something which is incredibly famous over there but clearly not over here x

http://gnnr.tumblr.com/post/696996218/what-that-usa-wins-1-1-headline-really-meant

The Plashing Vole said...

OK, but I don't think people were saying 'Americans are stupid' but that it was arrogant. Which I don't think it was - it's a great result for a non-soccer nation, so I agree with the headline.

As for filling Wembley for one match - wow. A lot of the crowd will be Americans anyway, and 70,000 people really isn't that much - Irish international football matches always sell out despite almost no interest in the game at any other level. There's a league, but it's absolutely tiny compared to Gaelic football and hurling.

My point is that there's little depth or grassroots demand for NFL here: the Wembley game is a commercial decision by the NFL to try to spread interest here. It might work, it might not.

There's a parallel in the States - the 94 World Cup, which sort-of worked. There's also a New York GAA team which competes in the Irish competitions - it hasn't done much for the sports in the US.