Requiem for the New World

We like to think we're better, over here in the Western Hemisphere. We're newer, for one thing. We've got wide open spaces where we can swing our mighty elbows to our hearts' content. And we believe we brought the best of the Old World with us while jettisoning the worst of it, although that's not nearly as true as we assume it is.

And you know what else?

Most years, we can play soccer with the best of them.

Most years.

This year, however ... well let's just yesterday was a crummy day for the New World, which got old-schooled right out of the World Cup. France beat Uruguay and Belgium knocked out Brazil, a nominal favorite, and that's it for the Western Hemisphere. We're not even out of the quarterfinals and the Americas are out of it.

It's an all-Europe show now from here on out, and I don't know what there is to say about that except the Europes just play better soccer these days. The United States didn't even get into the World Cup. Mexico had the big day against Germany but that was pretty much it. Panama played the role of Automatic W for everyone it played. And Brazil and Argentina, the royal couple of South American soccer, never approached the level of play which was expected of them.

Uruguay, it turns out, was likely the best South American side. And it couldn't even get out of the quarters.

So now the New World has to watch the Old World divvy up the spoils, which is kind of where we came into all this, if you think about it.  The Old World came here in the first place, after all, to divvy up our spoils. History, the great circle.

So who do you root for now?

Well, the logical choice here in the U.S. would be the mother country, England, because we're still kinda-sorta relatives. But the Blob is putting its chips on Belgium, and not only because they play a lovely brand of soccer. The Blob is putting its chips on Belgium because it's historically one of the most put-upon nations in Europe, and so deserves a moment in the sun. You get run over by the Germans twice in one century, the gods surely owe you something.

Germany, of course, is already out of it. Karma.

And as for England ...

I'm sure a lot of Americans are pulling for them. But I'm also sure a nation with as significant a population of Irish descendants in it means it's in no way an automatic thing. The Irish, after all, have no reason to love the British, for the very good reason that the British once upon a time tried to exterminate them. And I guess my opinion in this area is colored by an encounter I had in Florence, Italy, one night in 2012, when the Brits were playing the home country of Italy in the Euro Cup quarters.

Sitting next to me at the outdoor café where we were watching, it turned out, was a guy from Ireland. And at one point I leaned over and asked him if he were rooting for England. The Commonwealth, and all that.

He looked at me like I had two heads.

"Oh, hell, no!" he said.

I suppose he's rooting for Belgium now, too. All the best people do, I'm told.