Saturday, February 17, 2007

Relatively speaking

At least Luis has a family that knows something about soccer. I've finally gotten my mom to the point where she knows that Landon Donovan plays the game and that he's a member of the U.S. team. I don't think she could name another player on the entire squad, though.

That to me was a huge indication of the impact of David Beckham. My mom called me about it when she saw the news - and she was really excited. I'd never mentioned Beckham to her, yet she knew about him.

What's funny is that people really believe what they want to about Landon. I remember getting a lecture from this guy in the press box about Landon's lack of respect for Mexico being shown in the short answers he gave to Spanish media during interviews.

"He was a Spanish major in college," railed the Mexican reporter. "He speaks perfect Spanish, and yet he only has time for a few sentences!"

I piped up.

"Landon didn't go to college."

"Yes, he did, that's where he learned his Spanish," the guy insisted.

"No, he signed with a German team at sixteen. He didn't even finish a regular high school. He took accelerated coursework to be able to join Bayer Leverkusen."

The reporter paused. "Where did he learn his Spanish?"

"High school - he speaks it well for only taking a year of Spanish, but it's not perfect."

The guy was floored. Finally, he said, "Well, I'll have to check on that."

2 comments:

L.B. said...

Yeah, my family is all about Mexican soccer.

An aunt supports for Cruz Azul.

A couple of uncles and their families support America.

My dad supports Chivas.

They all support El Tricolor.

It makes family gatherings rather interesting.

A.C. said...

My mom probably thinks Cruz Azul is a medical organization, America is the U.S., Chivas is what goes into birria, and El Tri is the name of some ranchero band.

Basically, it means that at family gatherings, I don't really talk much about soccer at all. Too one-sided.