Blocking out the buzz of the World Cup

June 14, 2010 - 9:02 AM by

I was hoping that one of my fellow bloggers would post something about the World Cup, so I wouldn’t have to.

So here goes. I’m one of those one percent of the Israeli male population (and a decent percentage of the female population) that does not watch the World Cup. For those who are even behind me and don’t even know what the World Cup is (and if you’re American, there’s a good chance), it’s the Olympics of soccer – which takes place every four years, this year in South Africa.

Israel, which hasn’t qualified for the seemingly endless tournament since 1970, goes crazy at World Cup time. Restaurants and bars offer special deals and fill up with rowdy patrons, and if you go outside in your neighborhood, you can hear the irritating buzz of the Vuvuzelas, the South African noisemakers in the shape of trumpets which fans blast through every game, coming out of the TVs of every house on the block.

And even Mabat, the staid nightly news on state-run Channel 1, has gone World Cup crazy, redesigning its set to look like a carnival and embarrassing itself in that festive atmosphere by having to report on a woman killing her pregnant neighbor because she spilled coffee on her clothes line.

Even people who don’t normally follow soccer join the bandwagon at World Cup time, rooting for their native country or a favorite of theirs. The topic of whom should Israelis get behind was treated with irreverence by Jerusalem Post reporter Gil Hoffman last week, who went through all 32 participating countries, and their affronts to Israel and the Jewish people, before tongue in cheek concluding that the only teams worth backing were the US, Holland and Denmark.

I don’t know how those teams are doing, because I’m boycotting the tournament – if everyone likes something so much, there has to be something wrong with it. I’ll wait until 2019 when Israel makes it in again.

Tags: , , , , • Category: General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Sports, tv 

Comments

2 Comments on Blocking out the buzz of the World Cup

  1. David-Joe on Sun, Jun 20th 2010 4:21 AM

    2. Support the United States? Not in thsi world cup!

    Their president and his cabinet is doing his best to disrespect Israel and expressly tried to “forbid” Jews from continuing to build in Eretz Israel? Not to forget the anti-Israel attitude of major newspapers such as the New York Times and other media commentators?

    Germany may well have a deal with Iran, but it is supportive of Israel and does not support boycotts of the country. Its soldiers were amongst the first to be offered to police the Lebanon agreement.

    I would rather support Germany than Obama’s America.

    So by all means support Denmark and the Netherlands, they played WELL this week. But replace the US for Germany – its 2010 not 1940!

  2. Israel: World Cup Bonanza – Back to the Game :: Elites TV on Sun, Jun 20th 2010 8:34 AM

    3. [...] male population” who does not watch, and is thus able to report back on the excitement. He writes: “Israel, which hasn’t qualified for the seemingly endless tournament since 1970, goes [...]

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