Here's a late report on the World Cup. My daughters and I went to the US-Iran and US-Yugoslavia games and had a wonderful time. The atmosphere at the Iran game was especially great. The Iranians were very friendly both before and after the game. A large group of US and Iranian fans posed with a giant US/Iran flag with hands shaking in the middle of the flags. The Iranians were gracious winners, saying that the US was unlucky or they were very lucky. We had a dozen or more requests to have our picture taken with groups of Iranians both before and after the game. In contrast, we had only one request for a picture from a group of Yugoslav fans.

Cheering with Sam's Army was a great experience. The chants did get a little silly at the Yugoslav game ("We want Pele," or Michael Jordan or Mia Hamm, none of whom unfortunately were on the substitutes' bench.) The experience makes me wish I had the money to follow the American team to future games. (A necessity since the last time the national team played in Texas was 1995.)

I was unhappy to read that USSF gave up some of its tickets to Iranian and Yugoslav fans. I had 30 students based in Paris who would have loved tickets to either game. According to USSF, their only alternative was to go to official travel agency Gulliver's Travels. Since their study abroad packages included airfare and a dorm room in Paris, they didn't want or need Gulliver's overpriced tour packages. USSF could have found a way to sell its ticket allocation to the US public directly. The students ended up watching the games on one of the big screens located throughout Paris, where the atmosphere was the next best thing to being there.

One of my students had an unhappy experience after the final in France. He joined in the celebrations after the game, and was kissed on the mouth by an enthusiastic Frenchman. The student punched the guy, and the Frenchman beat him up. (The student is fine now.)

I was in Holland at the time the final was played. Everyone I spoke to there wanted Brazil to win. A friend of mine was in Austria and Germany that weekend, and people she spoke with favored Brazil too. Although it's not a scientific survey, it gives a little idea about the feelings of other countries toward France.

Overall, being at the World Cup games was a wonderful experience.
Sue