The “soccer, and the goodness of ordinary Americans, saved this World Cup,” according to Nancy Armour of USA TODAY. It began under a “dismal cloud, our government using it as an excuse to settle political scores” while FIFA, along with some local officials and businesses, “took advantage of the opportunity to gouge fans.” The World Cup has “been everything it was intended to be and nothing we feared it would become.” This is the largest World Cup in history, 48 teams up from 32, and for a while, it “seemed as if it was going to be the messiest.” There were concerns of blowouts and foreign fans staying home, while tickets were expensive, hotels increased rates and N.J. Transit tried to hike the price of the train to N.Y. N.J. Stadium. But all those fears “turned out to be overblown.” Only nine of 72 group stage games were blowouts, and most were “wildly entertaining.” Armour: “But it is the arms-wide-open welcome by the American people that has made this World Cup so enchanting. … We have thrown ourselves into our role as the world’s host with gusto.” The tournament “has not been perfect.” Iran’s treatment will be the “great shame of this World Cup,” and FIFA “missed a real opportunity by pricing out so many fans.” But the World Cup has “not been the grim experience so many of us feared.” It has “brought out the best in us” (USA TODAY, 6/28).
CREDIT THE PEOPLE: The N.Y. Times’s Tariq Panja said after initial tensions leading up to the World Cup, positive vibes around the tournament arrived because of “the people.” Panja, appearing on “The Daily,” cited the excitement around base camps and foreign fans arriving to the U.S. “full of hope, full of cheer and just ready to have fun meeting each other and showing their colors, showing their songs.” Host Natalie Kitroeff said it “feels significant that this is happening at the same time” that the U.S. is celebrating its 250th anniversary, noting that some celebrations have “become contentious,” while the World Cup “feels like it’s saying something important about the United States and its identity.” Panja said it “tells us that this country is a patchwork of people and was built on everybody. This is an immigrant nation. The World Cup has shown it to be so” (“The Daily,” N.Y. Times, 6/29).
TAKING IN THE CULTURE: In Chicago, Paul Sullivan wrote the world’s reviews on America are in, and we are “getting four-star ratings from everywhere.” The invading army of World Cup tourists “love our hospitality, barbeque, ranch dressing, bars, superstores, fast food and our all-around coolness.” The Scots have “turned our cities into giant parties, and the Norwegians have made conga lines in our ballparks.” Sullivan: “It’s heartening to know we’re not all hated after all” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/28). In Colorado Springs, Mark Kiszla wrote the World Cup came to America and “delivered the U.S. a love letter capable of melting the coldest heart.” At a time when the U.S. is “often depicted as the world’s bully rather than a benevolent policeman, the real wonder of this World Cup is how visitors from around the globe have fallen head over heels in love with all the silly stuff we Americans take for granted” (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 6/27).
EXCELLENT PLAY: SKYNEWS.com’s Adam Bate noted there were 215 goals total, a record for the group stage, and the increase in games is “not the whole story.” The 2.99 average per game is the highest since the 1950s. And there have not been many beatings. It was all to get us back to 32 teams -- the number of nations that competed in each of the previous seven tournaments. But “none of the newcomers truly disgraced themselves” (SKYNEWS.com, 6/28). CBSSPORTS.com’s James Benge wrote the addition of 16 teams to the tournament “did not significantly detract from the quality of the competition as a whole.” Of the six lowest-ranked sides when the draw was made, two -- Cabo Verde and Ghana -- qualified for the round of 32. Even those “that struggled through the group stage left an impression” (CBSSPORTS.com, 6/28). The GLOBE & MAIL’s Cathal Kelly wrote the 48-team phase of the World Cup “has been glorious.” Rather than half the entrants “banging on the heads of the other half like a bongo,” it has been “consistently surprising and entertaining. … If anything, the competitiveness was improved” (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/26).
HERE TO STAY? The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay writes that over halfway through the World Cup, even the “ball-deflating soccer grinches among us must confess the action’s been ... fairly irresistible.” However, a “quiet fear” is that “we are never going back to sanity on ticket pricing.” Though there have not been empty seats, these prices are “totally absurd.” It is “hard to shake the feeling” that FIFA has “unlocked a new luxury market.” One has to figure other sports are “looking at those four-figure nosebleed seats and wondering if they’ve vastly underpriced their product” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/29).
