Add new comment

At this risk of turning this discussion political, *ahem*, having spend the last 2.5 years in Europe I have to say I saw very very little blatant anti-American opinion in my interactions with the Europeans.  I would say most of them are very curious and respectful of us.  Most of them condemned our foreign policy under the Bush Administration, but most of Americans did as well by the end of his term.  I even encountered many people, the most memorable of which were Danes, who said "I love America and Bush, f*** the Muslims". Most everyone that I talked to respected me and was interested in what I had to say. The most common complaint of Americans is that we are rude, loud, and arrogant.  Which while observing the behavior of American tourists relative to all others I have to say I agree with.  It's nothing intentional, it just comes off that way because that is how we interact with each other in our own home country. Although when it comes to rude and arrogant we a far cry from the Italians and the Dutch.  I have experienced far far more knee-jerk anti-France sentiment in America than I have anti-American sentiment in any other country on Earth.
However, if the point is that there is anti-American sentiment in soccer I can see a strong case to be made there.  How dare the Americans come to our part of the world and beat us at a game that no one in their country cares about? America hasn't paid its dues in World Football and doesn't deserve to win.  And Doc is right, the ref intentionally blew that call from my perspective.  No excuse for FIFA or the ref himself.