This is regarding the exhibition game between England’s Manchester United and Germany’s Bayern Munich. It was great to be at this game and see people from all over the world. You could hear all different languages spoken to describe the play–a true world event that shows how far behind the United States sports fan mentality is and how far the media have to come to understand a “world” sport.
I was curious how American sport writers would interpret the game and, as usual, the media wrongly interpreted what the fans saw. At one point in a Tribune article, the crowd was described as booing because of a tie. That is not what the boos were for.
As any soccer fan knows, a tie is just as good as a win. It is the quality of play that matters. The boos were meant to show the dissatisfaction in the quality of play, not the score.
A great game can end in a draw and you still come away with satisfaction that a game was played with some passion in the players’ efforts. The play on this particular Sunday afternoon did not show players with inspiration in their intent. We were looking for a bit more passion to be shown regardless of the score.
