I think it’s pretty clearly different in other parts of the world, especially as it relates to soccer. I’ll also admit to rooting the US to victory in the World Baseball Classic for what I would imagine are similar reasons.

I have no qualms with saying that I will be rooting for England with greater fervor than the US when the World Cup comes around. I want the US to do well, but that has less to do with patriotism and more to do with a desire to see soccer become more prominent in the US.

I will definitely be rooting for the U.S. at the World Cup, but don’t see any problem with Americans who don’t. The team, if representative of anything, is about the sport, not the country. If you fell in love with the sport through the prism of another country, I can hardly judge you for not rooting for the stars and stripes. The only thing that would ring hallow is if you were to switch allegiances, which I’m sure you won’t do. Is it really that different than rooting for a nonlocal professional team? I don’t think so. Wear your colors and be proud.

I don’t really care whether the U.S. wins the gold medal for basketball or baseball or most other sports. But it’s a rare competition in which Americans are big underdogs from the get-go, so I enjoy that feeling every four years. There’s so much upside and very little downside, since expectations are never all that high. You’re not depressed if your team doesn’t make it out of the group stage.

Losing sleep and dragging ass at work for a few weeks was a small price to pay for the excitement of watching the U.S. team make its improbable run in 2002. There’s nothing better than playing with house money.

Do you understand the purpose of the World Cup? That it’s to put aside club loyalties…or League loyalties in your case…and root for your country? You seem to be unable to separate the two.

I like Milner, Heskey and Warnock (hmmm…maybe not the last two) as much as the next guy…but they aren’t Villans when they put on the England shirt on June 12th…they play for England.

Whether I like the English league, and alot of English players, has no bearing on who I root for.

I also have to wonder if you will speak with an “American Accent” when you root for England…or if you’re one of those Americans who uses words like “rubbish”, “bollocks”, and “wanker” when watching soccer.

I feel genuinely sorry for you, because you are going to be missing out on what is, to me, the most quintessential joys of the World Cup…rooting for your country. This tournament wouldn’t be what it is today if everyone behaved like you. That’s not meant to be mean…it’s just the truth.

There’s no way I would root against my country in a sport…no matter how much I like the players on the other team. Thankfully, there are alot of players on England I don’t like!

I have only been involved in following soccer full-time for about two-three years now. Always played the game but never followed it hardcore. I was first drawn to the game by following teams in England, and the EPL is what I follow the most. I would put Aston Villa right up there with all of my American sports loyalties, and I am a very hardcore fan in everything that I follow.

However, I was born here in the United States and it is very easy for me to push aside my love for the England game and root for the USMNT. It just came natural to me. Never once would I have even contemplated rooting for another team – that is just wrong to me. Like the poster above, I have no problems pushing aside my love for the Villans on the England team in order to root for the US. I am in no way an outwardly patriotic person, but I have no problems showing and parading around my support for the USMNT.

Don’t mistake this for me bashing your reasoning – you feel how you feel. However, I do feel a little awkward/weird when I see Americans rooting for other countries more so than their own – probably because I don’t truly understand it.

is that the World Cup is a much different event in the US than it is in the rest of the world. Soccer is something like the fifth most popular sport in the US. Our highest level professional league gets very little exposure outside of Fox Soccer Channel (which is generally an opt-in channel that people not already interested in soccer don’t subscribe to) and one match a week on ESPN2. USMNT friendlies and non-World Cup matches are equally difficult to come by. ESPN is doing a good job of pushing the World Cup, but outside of them the rest of the mainstream sports media seem totally oblivious to it.

That’s obviously quite different than the rest of the world. The World Cup just isn’t a big deal here, and while that bums me out it’s reality. I understand that maybe that would change if the US play well, but I am skeptical. If I felt like the entire nation was united as one, and that the way our national team performed in the World Cup had a great deal of impact on national pride, etc, perhaps I’d feel differently. But 75% of the country could not possibly care less, and many of them are likely annoyed that the World Cup will be given so much exposure on ESPN.

Aside from the Olympics, international sports competitions aren’t really a big deal here. I doubt they ever will be. We care far, far more about our professional teams.

I can’t speak for Kirsten here, but as much as I love the World Cup as an event I am largely fairly passive with regards to my rooting interests. It’s an incredible and entertaining event and I cannot wait for it to begin, but as far as outcomes I don’t have a great deal of emotion invested. Which is why it’s difficult for me to understand why who someone else supports is such a big deal to other people.

I understand why an English person rooting for the USMNT team would be weird, but I don’t understand why an American rooting for England is weird. We haven’t been conditioned to care about such things or see them as matters of national pride. So we find our own path.

Awhile back, I remember someone talking about how they root for the U.S., but it would be kinda weird to see us win the World Cup. Their point was that in other countries, it’s like a national day of celebration that would morph into the country’s biggest weeks or months long party. Here, it would be front page news for a day, then would recede into the background rather quickly. Point being, it’s hard to say the U.S. “deserves” a World Cup (whatever that means).

I’ll definitely be rooting for the U.S., but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a tinge of guilt if we won it (heck, I felt that way whenever we beat Mexico). Maybe I’m a bad sports fan. But it’s hard for me to judge anyone else on their rooting interests when I know I have my own conflicts.

I root against the USA team in Olympic basketball because I despise Mike Krzyzewski. I will root for the USA to beat England June 12 and then root for England to go on to win the World Cup (because that is the league I watch and love and because I know the USA sadly won’t win it, even though the USSF targeted this year as the year the USA would win the World Cup).

Wow…just read the origins of this blog over at WordPress. You’ve never even watched your own country compete in the World Cup, have you? You aren’t basing this decision on anything remotely experiential – but entirely on how you think you might feel.

Why not let it play out before making that choice?

Heck – since they missed Euro 2008, you’ve never even watched England compete in a major competition…but you’ve apparently decided your passion for them is too strong to deny because a grand total of 1 Villa player might see the field for the entire tournament. You’ll buy their jersey and wear it. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but half of Villa’s typical starting XI isn’t even English – again, you seem unable to separate Club/League and Country.

I feel even more sorry for you now for passing up this chance…at least if you’d been a fan of English soccer for a few decades, I could cut you a little slack…but to make this ridiculous decision 2 years into your soccer fandom just makes no sense.

This is about as logical as deciding you don’t like pizza, even though you’ve never had it…but have read about it and watched people eat it on TV….and, besides, you’re convinced that lasagna tastes a whole lot better anyway.

…and wonder why anyone would hate it. So you would probalby assign the negative character trait to me that I’m a moron for feeling that way. It’s what we do.

…you write a blog post that is designed to incite debate, and is clearly an emotional subject, and I am being threatened with a ban?

You called yourself Benedict Arnold and welcomed people to a)Measuse you for a noose and b) Call you a traitor. You welcomed people to challenge you on this, did you not?

Should I have just done those things instead of stating my opinions? Would that’ve been easier?

 What connection do you feel you have with England I take it a country you have visited a couple times at best over the country you were raised in?

Well this picked up pace since I last posted.

I hate Atlanta too btw

Root for who you like. Who cares?

Like the author of the original post, I did not inherit the patriotism gene. At all. That said, I will be rooting for the US in the WC as always. I am proud of the strides soccer has made in this country, and I know that a strong showing in the WC would do a lot for the game in America, which I think is good. And as always, I will have other teams I root for to a lesser extent when the US are eventually eliminated.

I differ from the author in a major way, however. I hate the English national team. I love the EPL and think it is the greatest league in the world. In fact, my favorite club team plays in England. But man do I hate the English national team!

So, Kristen, while I think everyone should feel free to cheer for whatever country they want at the World Cup, I respectfully question the judgment with which you exercise that freedom. :)