8 World Cups

One interesting facet of Eight World Cups is that the book is very much an American story. Vecsey was born and raised in New York, rather than Barcelona or Sao Paolo. He was a part of the generations who saw soccer as an immigrants game, as anti-american. He has seen soccer's struggle for popularity and respect. The relationship between American and soccer is a fascinating one, and one that is of particular interest to me. Even as I grew up i was constantly told that "American sucks at soccer." My great-grandfather was an immigrant who loved and played soccer, but would never have had his son play. Even when my dad played, the evanston team was made up mostly of immigrants. But these people missed that soccer being the game of immigrants was positive, this multicuralism is part of the beauty of soccer. At James Park every night there are several groups scattered around playing, a group of haitians, a group of africans, a group of mexicans, a group of white people. And they are all playing the same game. They may play different styles, say different things in different languages, but they are all kicking a circle into a square. The American teams stars are a part of this. Jozy Altidore is the son of Haitian parents, Clint Dempsey played with his mexican neighbors in Nacogdoches, Texas, Chris Wondolowski is half polish, half Kiowa native american. Deandre Yedlin is a quarter black, a quarter native american, a quarter latino and a quarter Latvian, literally the most diverse man of all time. America is a country of immigrants who bring with them their own styles of soccer from around the world. The impact of immigration on soccer national teams could be very interesting to research.
On another note, it is cool that this book written from a journalistic standpoint, Vecsey went to these 8 world cups to cover them as a journalist. Vecsey sees the struggles that American journalists have in covering soccer. For example, there was a minor uproar when before the 2014 world cup Jurgen Klinsmann (the US coach) said that the US would not win the world cup. The writers, used to the blowhards and Cinderellas of basketball and football (not to mention that there is much less of a division between the best and the worst teams in those sports), thought it was ridiculous and downright Un-American to give up before the tournament. But Klinsmann, a german, knew the truth and was being straightforward. It was practically impossible for the US to win. It is good to read a book from a journalist who sees past the soccer bashing, who condemns the attitude that in a 0-0 tie nothing happens. It is also interesting to see how Vecsey evolved into his enlightened attitude towards soccer. Initially, he had no idea what was going on on the field, it took him years to figure out what was happening. Improvement in soccer journalism is just one more tool to assist in Americas embrace of soccer.