Tuesday, June 28, 2011

¿Hablas español?

Well Tim Howard is not a happy camper based on his rant the other day about the Gold Cup organizers. His tirade made international news, and "jumped the shark" to shows like "The O'Riley Factor", as he harpooned CONCACAF organizers for their lack of cultural sensitivity. In his own words:
“CONCACAF should be ashamed of themselves. I think it was a f&(%ing disgrace that the entire post-match ceremony was in Spanish. You can bet your ass if we were in Mexico City it wouldn’t be all in English.”
Reports on this point are varied as apparently there was some English spoken during the ceremony (source).

Coach Bradley took a decidedly diplomatic tone stating that:
"Obviously, the support that Mexico has on a night like tonight makes it a home game for them,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “Certainly we have some fans, but the overwhelming amount of support (for Mexico) is something that we expected and as a team we understand it's part of what we've got to deal with tonight. It was still a great atmosphere.”
For my money while I was not thrilled with CONCACAFs lousy handling of the situation, and the lack of a spine to fail to give a statement after when asked repeatedly, to me this is not that big a deal. Yes, the ceremonies should have been conducted in both languages out of respect for where the match was being played, and the other team. Shading the way of the Mexican population at a high level seems disrespectful to those who are not able to understand the language.

That said I have the luxury of speaking Spanish and beyond a protocol gaffe, I don't see the issue. I have to believe that Howard was emoting more about the dismal loss the US Team just suffered, than how CONCACAF was conducting business.

... and for the record, the US Teams disrespect for not taking a photo after the match was rather pathetic. They came to the match and lost in a "fair fight." They have professional responsibilities outside of just playing the match. Instead of pouting and hiding in their locker room, act like pros and take the damn picture.

Use it as some motivation the next time the US plays Mexico.

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