Travels in the Riel World

Brazil is a country that is mad for soccer (or football, as most of the world calls the sport). Now, that passionate love for the game has been permanently documented in a new National Football Museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. What’s unique about this museum is that it not only celebrates Brazil’s star players and team accomplishments, but it also pays tribute to the sport’s role in Brazilian culture, as described in this article in the International Herald Tribune.

The museum tells the story of both sport and country, where the national pastime has come to represent and inspire the multiracial, samba-loving soul of the people. In Brazil, stuffy European soccer was transformed into “the beautiful game” of magical passing and dribbling that has won the country world renown…

Another room pays homage to Brazil’s fans. They dance shirtless, beating drums to samba rhythms on huge video screens, with cacophonous surround sound that makes you feel as if you are among the crowd.

A sport for the masses is a theme throughout. In one room, a short movie recounts how soccer in Brazil morphed from a country club sport that was socially segregated during Miller’s time, into one that took on the evolving character of the racially mixed working class that was propelling Brazil’s industrialization.

The Chinese are proud to be hosting this year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing, and they certainly want the home team to perform well. But perhaps not too well.

There was an interesting cultural note in a recent Washington Post article about Chinese rooting interests in these Olympics. It seems that while the Chinese are proud of their nation’s growing might on the world stage, some of them think it’s a bit too soon - and too showy - for their athletes to emerge with the most medals this year. It’s typical for the Chinese to be self deprecating, and this reminded me of a Chinese-born woman who used to work with my wife. She was horrified at the thought of filling out a performance review for herself at work because it would be unseemly to be too self congratulatory.

Apparently, that attitude even extends to the Olympics. Here is the telling anecdote from Francesco Sisci in his Post story:

The Olympic Games aren’t just a show for me; they’re a family affair, and one that’s turning out quite differently from what I’d expected. I’m Italian, but I’ve lived in China for about 20 years. My wife is Chinese — and very patriotic — and my two daughters grew up here…So you can imagine my state of mind before these games. I thought we all had to be very patriotic — that is, pro-China.

But when my mother announced before the games that she hoped that China would win the most medals, my wife, Luoyan, looked at me as if my mother had said something inappropriate. “Well,” she replied, “I hope that China comes in second and America will be first.”

She’s not alone. There’s a sizable undercurrent of hope here that the United States will top the medal rankings…The subtle reluctance to win may also be related to China’s being host of the games; by coming in first, China would look like a showoff. It could also be part of an idea that sport stands for economic and political might, and China knows that it certainly can’t challenge American supremacy, at least not yet.

“It’s not our moment. It would be too ambitious and too unreal to be the first in the Olympics now,” said a friend of mine at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the country’s premier think tank. “Many people, even among the leaders, think like this.”

What happens when a prominent Thai businessman takes over a British football team that is managed by a Swede? Perhaps a clash of cultures was inevitable.

Regardless of your interest in sports, there is a fascinating recent article in the Financial Times that illuminates many of the cultural differences between Thailand and northern Europe. The story specifically recounts the management issues that arose between Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand and a wealthy entrepreneur who last year took over the Manchester City Football Club, and Sven-Göran Eriksson, the team’s now former manager. The article includes numerous insights for anyone who works across cultures. An excerpt:

Mr Thaksin … is fond of promoting “modern” business techniques, yet he remains steeped in Thai culture. He tends - like most Thais - to trust family, friends and old associates, above all others. So he placed loyal executives and a son and a daughter on the Manchester City board.

A boss who commands awe and respect in Thailand will also expect to be obeyed in a fashion that Mr Eriksson may have found alien. “Over the centuries, the kings of Thailand have been feared and adored. Thais have grown to expect a leader to demonstrate a blend of authoritarianism and benevolence,” writes Henry Holmes in his book Working with the Thais .

There are arguments among academics about how deferential Thais really are these days, but no one doubts that society is much more hierarchical than in the west. The nuances are complex but, crudely, traditional Thai bosses delegate less and are less inclined to discuss their plans with people outside their inner circle.

“Traditional Thai and western management practices are like night and day,” says Stuart Raj, an expert in cross-cultural management.

The Thai boss is very likely to be a rather paternal figure, who is never “off duty”. Every meeting with subordinates is, in this sense, formal. A senior Thai is expected to consult with his juniors but to have the authority, strength and wisdom to make his own decisions. On the other hand, as a father-figure, he is expected to look after his loyal staff, family and friends…

Mr Eriksson, from conspicuously egalitarian Scandanavia, may not have been comfortable as poodle, as he might have seen it. Once relations had cooled, the Swede would most likely have found himself further outside Mr Thaksin’s circle of favoured advisers and - as wins became rarer - increasingly distrusted.

Any sharp comments Mr Eriksson might have made will have been taken badly. “Thais are extremely sensitive to criticism. Everything is about relationships, so criticism becomes very wounding,” says Somjai Pakapasvivat, a Thai management expert at Chulalongkorn University.

Baseball season begins today, with a season-opening game in Tokyo between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics. For American fans of these teams, the season begins at the ungodly hour of somewhere between 3 a.m. (West coast) and 6 a.m. (East coast). Still, it’s always an exciting day for fans, and the Japanese twist to the opener gives us a chance to look at some of the different baseball traditions in the U.S. and Japan.

One of the most interesting differences is actually the fan experience at the games. The Boston Globe has been following the Red Sox in Japan and notes that the Sox-A’s game in the Tokyo Dome will not be quite the same as a contest between two Japanese teams.

A good part of the Dome’s charm will be missing when the Red Sox play the A’s in the real games Tuesday and Wednesday. There won’t be thousands of well-lubricated, yellow-clad Tigers fans standing, clapping, singing, and cheering (while a band plays) when the home team is at bat. These guys have gym-class whistles, flags, Thunderstix, and signage.

The Globe is not exaggerating here. I was at a Japanese game in Tokyo a few years ago and I wrote about the experience in my book. Here is how I described the scene in the stadium:

The visiting team was up first and so were their fans, who engaged in a series of coordinated cheering, jumping, shouting, flag-waving, drum-beating, whistle-blowing, trumpet-playing mayhem. And, no, coordinated mayhem is not an oxymoron, but rather a quintessentially Japanese way of rooting for a team. The cheers we saw were all choreographed, loud and non-stop.

When the ballplayers switched from offense to defense after each half-inning, the other team’s fans rose and launched into their own organized pandemonium. The first set of fans politely gave way, since it’s not socially acceptable to cheer while the other team is batting. For the young students sitting behind us in their identical school uniforms, that meant it was time to return to their chopsticks and finish eating their boxed dinners. For many adults, it was time for a concession run to bring back noodles and sake. Or, even better, to order beers from the attractive young women who wandered the stands with lightweight kegs strapped to their backs.

Then, there was the entertainment sideshow. I was amused by the booming English-language rendition of “Who Let the Dogs Out” every time the visiting team made its final out of the inning, but most interesting was the “fifth inning sweep.” This was introduced by the public address announcer much as the seventh inning stretch is in a U.S. ballpark. While the grounds crew ran onto the field to do their normal sweep of the basepaths, some cheerleaders and the team’s mascot came out and danced to the song “YMCA.” After the basepaths were swept, the grounds crew joined in the performance, doing a choreographed dance number with their brooms! Yes, I thought, I can just imagine the groundskeepers at Fenway Park doing that.

Amazingly, the fans’ enthusiasm never seemed to waver. In the game we attended, the Nippon Ham Fighters took a 9-0 lead into the ninth inning. I should note that this contest was being played near the end of the baseball season and both teams were hopelessly out of the playoff race. It was the equivalent of watching two of the worst American teams competing during the last week of the season, with both clubs more than 20 games out of first place. Despite this, and despite the fact that Chiba Lotte was losing by nine runs, none of the Marines’ fans left the stadium and they remained just as loud and raucous in the ninth inning as they had been in the first.

When the game was over, the Ham Fighters’ mascot ran onto the field and bowed to the fans, while confetti shot out of the upper deck and rained over the spectators. It was as if the team had just won the league title. Dramatic music blared from stadium speakers, a pedestal was set up on the field, and two of the star players came over and were interviewed live while the team’s fans stayed to watch and cheer.

Or, if you’re interested in cultural differences in how the players perform and train, the Globe also has that covered with an intriguing look at the Japanese Little League.

When the coach spots something he doesn’t like, he barks at the offending player, who instantly removes his cap and stands rigidly before bowing in acknowledgment of the message being received.

There is constant chatter from the players, who yell, “Koi-Koi” (”C’mon, c’mon)” and make other sounds, virtually indistinguishable even to a native speaker, but that are designed to help promote wa, which means unity and team spirit…

These are the values that penetrate to the youngest levels of Japanese baseball. Critics say the Japanese approach stifles creativity and individual expression, but these kids show a mastery of fundamentals that would embarrass some big leaguers.

Ariyasu said he tries to teach his players patience (”nintai”) and discipline (”choubatsu”). These are principles he learned as a youth studying judo, and from his father, who served in the Japanese navy during World War II. “It is a style,” he said, “almost like the samurai spirit.” 

Most people are likely not familiar with the name Sania Mirza. Nor should they be, really, since she’s an Asian female tennis player who has of late been ranked about 30th in the world singles rankings. In short, she’s an excellent tennis player, but she’s not exactly Maria Sharapova or Serena Williams.

In India, however, it’s a different story. She is the best female tennis player ever to come out of India and is ranked #1 in Asia. This status has brought her tremendous popularity in her homeland, but also a surprising amount of criticism. It’s difficult, after all, being a feminist icon and a short-skirt-wearing tennis player in a very traditional and conservative society.

Sania Mirza, the most successful tennis star in India, has announced that she has no desire to play in her country any more after a string of controversies that have exposed her to months of negative publicity…Mirza’s immense popularity has brought with it intense and often hostile scrutiny from fringe religious groups and from India’s newly aggressive television and print media…

Ramachandra Guha, a historian, argued that it was a reflection of “the rising power of bigotry and intolerance in Indian society.”

“Male chauvinists have taken exception to her dress; religious bigots have protested a picture that has both her and a mosque in the same frame; jingoists have exploded at the (purely accidental) closeness of her feet in another frame to the national flag,” he wrote in an article for The Telegraph, a newspaper in Calcutta.

Mirza is one of India’s few female sports stars. Her talent and charm have won her advertising contracts and trouble in equal measure since she broke through to the top 40 in 2005, the first female Indian tennis player to achieve such a ranking.

They are two things that just don’t seem to go together. The gentle Thai female and the vicious sport of Thai boxing. But according to this story, female participation in Thai boxing is a growing phenomenon despite the fact that these same women are expected to behave according to the deferential traditions of their culture when they are not in the ring.

“To be a good girl,” says Pannipa Chaiyated, a demure 13-year-old, “you must have manners, speak politely and help with the housework.”

That’s when she’s not slugging her opponents in the ring.

In a country where femininity is highly prized and girls are often told by their parents to be discreet, obedient and gracious, female boxing is now a surprise hit…

With its roots in military training, Thai boxing, or muay Thai, is a rough sport that can make Western boxing look courteous.

The sport was once known as nawa arwut, literally “nine weapons,” because the goal was to teach soldiers that even if they had no knives or guns they could use two hands, two elbows, two knees, two feet and their head to battle their enemies. The rules have evolved: boxers are no longer allowed to head-butt their opponents and are also barred from biting, spitting, pulling hair, poking at the eyes and sticking out their tongues. But a well-placed knee to the kidney or a kick to the head or neck is fair game - and encouraged.

Muay Thai has for years been popular among martial arts enthusiasts worldwide, both women and men, and has been adopted by the gym crowd for its disciplined workout regimen. But it is only in the past few years that the sport has taken off for girls and women in Thailand, partly because a slowing economy has tightened belts and girls are lured by the cash they receive for fighting.

And yet, when the fight is over, it’s a different story…

Maintaining femininity is a serious concern for many of the Thai girls who fight, says Pariyakorn, a bejeweled and delicately built woman who comes across as someone who might worry that her manicured nails might break if she put on boxing gloves…

“In the ring I have to fight and do my best as a boxer: I kick, I punch, use my elbows and knees like a boy,” said Pannipa, the 13-year-old boxer, after a fight where she gave her opponent a bloody nose but got a fat lip in return. “Once I get down from the ring I become who I am - a girl.”

Being a girl not only means helping with the housework, Pannipa said. She has absorbed the sense of deference traditionally taught to girls in Thailand: she fills a visitor’s glass during meal time, she speaks softly and bows while clasping her hands together in a traditional Thai gesture of respect several times during an interview.

It’s opening day for baseball season in the United States. Every newspaper just did some form of a preseason preview and a few of them used the occasion to discuss the internationalization of baseball, particularly with more Japanese players now joining a large contingent of Latin Americans on team rosters.

The Hartfourd Courant looked at the history of baseball in Japan and why the sport seemed to fit well with Japanese culture.

Conditions in Japan, meanwhile, formed near-perfect conditions for baseball to become the national game. The Meiji period, a time of modernization and acceptance of ideas from the West, was in full swing and the elite universities were looking to athletics as a tool for training.

“They considered martial arts,” said Kelly, “but with martial arts, there was too much emphasis on the individual. It didn’t teach the right lessons. Baseball has the one-on-one confrontation of the batter and the pitcher, similar to sumo wrestling, and yet it is a team game, which involves the sacrifice of the individual for the team.” …

“Baseball is viewed as an opportunity and a way to show fighting spirit handed down from `Bushido,’ which is the code of the Samurai warriors,” Hillman said. “It is also very much a team sport and that fits into this culture, especially in the sacrificing one’s individual stats for the good of the team.”

And one topic in a Boston Globe article was the impact of Japan’s group-oriented culture on the sport:

“They’re a far more humble people than we are. They’re not encouraged to be independent. They’re encouraged to follow rules. There’s a saying, ‘The nail that sticks up gets beat down.’ If you’re an individual, you wouldn’t play on the high school team. They push teamwork, being the same, to the point where they wouldn’t allow a star, if different from everyone else, to be on the team.

The 2007 World Cup of Cricket is currently being played in the Caribbean. The sporting event is not getting much coverage in the U.S., not surprisingly, especially with March Madness going on. Shashi Tharoor, a diplomat and writer who recently published an op-ed column about his passion for cricket, says he is resigned to the fact that the sport will not catch on in this country.

… friends of mine in New York are already planning a World Cup party at the home of an expatriate with a satellite dish. The party will be attended by a raucous group of Indians and Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Brits, Australians and Zimbabweans. But of course there will be no Americans.

What I found more interesting about Tahroor’s op-ed, though, are the points he makes about the sport of cricket and the cultures that are most passionate about it.

In any event, nothing about cricket seems suited to the American national character: its rich complexity, the infinite possibilities that could occur with each delivery of the ball, the dozen different ways of getting out, are all patterned for a society of endless forms and varieties, not of a homogenized McWorld. They are rather like Indian classical music, in which the basic laws are laid down but the performer then improvises gloriously, unshackled by anything so mundane as a written score.

Cricket is better suited to a country like India, where a majority of the population still consults astrologers and believes in the capricious influence of the planets — so they can well appreciate a sport in which, even more than in baseball, an ill-timed cloudburst, a badly prepared pitch, a lost toss of the coin at the start of a match or the sun in the eyes of a fielder can transform the outcome of a game. Even the possibility that five tense, hotly contested, occasionally meandering days of cricketing could still end in a draw seems derived from ancient Indian philosophy, which accepts profoundly that in life the journey is as important as the destination. Not exactly the American Dream.

His piece is a fun read. And, if you are by chance interested in knowing more about the Cricket World Cup, you can read about it here.

The Japanese are known to have a polite and respectful culture. When two people bow in greeting, the younger or lower ranking individual traditionally bows lower. This week, even the world of American baseball glimpsed an example of this formality. I was amused to see this Boston Globe article, which describes the first on-field meeting between Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui and Red Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima.

Nothing casual about the greeting exchanged last night between Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui and his Japanese countrymen on the Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima.

With photographers and TV cameras forming a semicircle behind the plate 15 minutes before the game, the three met in a ceremony that set new standards of etiquette for a Yankees-Sox game. For those keeping score at home, Matsuzaka and Okajima outbowed Matsui by a wide margin, the show of respect startling for anyone more accustomed to seeing Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk whaling on each other…

Matsuzaka’s remarks were equally polite.

“I said to Matsui-san, ‘I’m sorry to bother you right before your game.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Thanks for coming over to say hello.’ He wished me good luck so I wished him the same and said thanks.”

I assure you, no Red Sox and Yankees players have ever bowed to each other before. 

If you’re interested in knowing more about the unique cultural traditions of Japanese baseball, a great source is Robert Whiting’s classic book, You Gotta Have Wa.

Two different articles about sports caught my eye recently for their connection to culture.

The first story was about the rise of women runners from Ethiopia.  It focused in part on Tirunesh Dibaba, the current world record holder in the 5,000 meters, and on the astonishing number of champion runners that hail from her region of Ethiopia.

The paved road south from Addis Ababa ends after 100 miles near the village of Asela, the hometown of Haile Gebrselassie, widely considered the greatest distance runner. From there, four-wheel-drive vehicles are needed to navigate the next 30 gravel, potholed miles to Bekoji, situated on a plateau at approximately 10,000 feet, surrounded by wheat fields.

Internet and cellphone service are not yet available in Bekoji, Tirunesh Dibaba said, but the town is as fertile for growing runners as it is for producing grain. … The climate is temperate and the altitude enhances oxygen-carrying capacity. Running is the transportation of everyday existence for many youngsters — for hauling water, for gathering firewood, for traveling to market, for going to and from school.

The second piece I noticed was about Barbaro, the great racing horse who was euthanized recently after never fully recovering from injuries suffered last spring.  The article used the Barbaro story to compare horse racing in the United States and Europe, and it included this nugget of information:

American racing has followed American culture, with an emphasis on short, exciting bursts of speed. In Europe, where organized racing began, tradition takes precedence, with a focus on longer races over rolling turf courses. In the United States, racing has evolved into a statistician’s paradise, dense with timed workouts, speed ratings and dosage figures. On the gallops in France or England, I have yet to see a stopwatch.

I’ve always been aware of the discrepancy between the U.S. and some other cultures in track and field, where Americans often produce great sprinters but few champion distance runners.  Great marathoners, in fact, are revered in parts of Africa and Asia in ways that Americans could never fathom.  However, it hadn’t occurred to me that there were differences in horse racing, as well, and that perhaps this is due, at least in part, to cultural preferences.

Well, I wrote about a Japanese topic yesterday, but it’s hard not to post about the surge of interest in Daisuke Matsuzaka.  In case you haven’t heard, this Japanese baseball star agreed to a contract yesterday with the Boston Red Sox and a recent search at Google News turned up nearly 2,000 media articles about the signing.  This isn’t peace in the Middle East, but people are obviously talking.

Most of the articles are about the baseball or the money, of course, but there are also numerous cultural aspects that are being discussed.  Here is a sampling:

Just before the signing was announced, the International Herald Tribune noted that the hardball negotiating tactics being used were not so common in Japan.

… many Japanese are worried that what they perceived as American hardball negotiating tactics, by both the Red Sox and Matsuzaka’s agent, Scott Boras, which are being reported in great detail by Japanese, could result in the pitcher coming back home with a loss of face and a lack of souvenirs.

On Japanese TV, the baseball talks are bigger news than the six-party negotiations with North Korea. Commentators on morning shows normally devoted to corporate scandals analyze the nuance of every non-Japanese move made by Boras or the Red Sox general manager, Theo Epstein, and its president, Larry Lucchino.  This is not how Toyota or Mitsubishi would recruit a potential employee.

Ron Borges of MSNBC also touched on the topics of money and face in Japan.

What Matsuzaka understood was what Boras never could, which was that unbridled greed would not set well in Japanese society. If he returned to Tokyo without having signed with the Sox after asking to be posted, he would not have been well received. Greed may be in in America, but it has its limits in Japanese baseball circles and Matsuzaka hit it at around $9 million a year.

Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe, meanwhile, mused about the cultural difficulties Matsuzaka will face in adjusting to the U.S.

He is about to immerse himself in a community that is as foreign to him as the streets of Tokyo would be to us. People born in this country have enough trouble learning the quirky ways of New Englanders. Factor in a language barrier, a cultural divide, and a little matter of having to perform on one of the most discerning — not to mention relentless — stages in baseball, and you hope this young pitcher can keep on smiling. …

“I want to make sure this young man with his extraordinary ability can transfer that ability to this country,” Boras said. “That’s not an easy step.  The most concerning part was, and still is, the often difficult and important transition to a new culture.”

There were a few other interesting takes on the story, as well:

-  The Boston Globe reported that Japanese tourism to Boston is likely to surge as a result of the signing.

-  And a blitz of coverage by the Japanese media is kicking up the already intense coverage of the Red Sox another notch or two.

-  My favorite unusual angle, however, was the story in yesterday’s NY Times that reported how some Japanese baseball fans are convinced that a player’s blood type contributes to his success or failure.  In fact, it is believed that one’s blood type can help predict a person’s character. Matsuzaka’s blood type, by the way, is O, which labels him as a “warrior.”

The Asian Games are currently being held in the Muslim nation of Qatar.  By all accounts, the games are a success and the capital city of Doha has spent billions of dollars on facilities and infrastructure upgrades in hopes of attracting future sporting events, perhaps even a Summer Olympics.  But one thing money cannot buy is a change in sporting attire, such as the tiny bikinis worn by female beach volleyball players that are now opening eyes in Qatar.

When Salim Al-Nabit and his friends went to see beach volleyball for the first time, they left their wives home.

Al-Nabit said he would watch the bikini-clad women, but he certainly wouldn’t want his wife to do so. He was there, he added, because it was a matter of national honor.

“We don’t see this a lot in Qatar,” Al-Nabit said. “I think most people think it is outrageous. But we accept it because it is important for our country. We want others to see us as a generous and hospitable people, willing to accept their ways, even if we don’t agree.”

Among the 16 Muslim nations represented at the Asian Games, only one has a team entered in the beach volleyball competition - Iraq, who is represented by two Christian sisters attired in somewhat more conservative shorts and tops.

The Qatari women are sitting out the event, though Qatar has teams for everything from archery to skeet shooting.

“It’s not good,” said Parvana Khoory, who watched from the almost-empty stands around the 1,500-seat center court dressed in black from head to toe. “We want a woman to cover all of her body. I think this discourages Muslim women from playing this sport.”

Ever wondered what baseball games are like in Japan?  Bob Woods has the story in an account he wrote for Continental Magazine.

He writes about both the cultural features of the sport…

Although the first pitch was scheduled for 1 p.m., the Fighters and the visiting Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles had been warming up since around 9 a.m. And we’re not talking the casual pregame warm-ups at ballparks in the States, where players launch fat batting practice pitches into the upper decks, shag some flies, and loosen up their throwing arms, mostly to entertain early-arriving fans. Every one of these players participates in group stretching and exercise routines, several rounds of BP, bunting drills, fielding practice, and anything else the coaches want them to do — for about an hour and a half.  This rigorous approach is one hallmark of Japanese baseball. …

Wa is the Japanese word for unity and team spirit, and … you gotta have it to succeed there in baseball. It’s why every player works so long and hard in pregame drills and boot camp–like spring training, why teamwork supercedes individual accomplishments.

And the colorful aspects of watching a game in Japan …

Every man, woman, and child packed into this section is wearing a white team jersey and joining in the nonstop repertoire of orchestrated cheers … while clapping a pair of bat-shaped plastic noisemakers. The din is led by a corralled group of young men blaring trumpets and waving giant team banners. Women toting mini kegs of beer in insulated backpacks keep adult revelers lubricated. … It feels and sounds like the zany student sections at a Texas vs. Oklahoma gridiron contest, right down to traditional female cheerleaders — wearing pleated skirts and shaking pom-poms — and a costumed mascot.

Lots of World Cup coverage in the news this week.  Last week, one of my posts discussed the influence of culture on a country’s style of soccer play, particularly as it related to Brazil.  This past Sunday, the New York Times published a sports magazine with a few Cup articles.  If you read through the stories, you’ll notice additional clues about soccer and culture.

In the article Most Bonito, John Carlin begins by discussing the creativity of the Brazilians…

They patented what has become known the world over as jogo bonito, the beautiful game, a style of soccer that combines exuberance with success.

And then he goes on to compare the Brazilians with the English…

Juca Kfouri, a leading TV and newspaper commentator in Brazil, likes to compare Brazilian soccer with the English original. The latter, he says, “is more tactical, more disciplined, more rigidly adhering to the rules the coach imposes. In Brazil, methods exist in order to be dismantled…

The English team captain, David Beckham, Tostão suggests, has the skill to do what a Brazilian player might, but he doesn’t because he is trapped in his English cultural mind-set. He cannot tap into what Tostão says is “the imaginative unconscious of Brazilian football.”

In a separate article, The Americans, Seriously, Jere Longman gets a couple of Europeans to offer quotes about U.S. culture and soccer…

The glue binding all these qualities together is the perseverance and determination that Alex Ferguson, the coach of Manchester United, in England, has called “that American thing.”

It’s a method of commitment that Jürgen Klinsmann, Germany’s national-team coach, told me is born of optimism and confidence, of “how to deal with people, how to look at things, how to believe in yourself, how to focus on things and also to take risks, to say, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

The writer also speaks with the U.S. coach, Bruce Arenas, who suggests that…

The American style … is defined by an ability to adapt, to shape strategies and formations according to various factors: the players available on a particular day, the opponent, the weather.

The Brazilians utilize their creativity.  The British stick to a structured, orderly plan. The Americans rely on an innate optimism and a willingness to change strategy from game to game.  One could certainly argue that these are national cultural characteristics as much as a style of soccer.

It’s June - the month soccer/football fans around the world have been anxiously awaiting, for it means the start of World Cup ‘06 (June 9).  With teams from 32 nations about to descend on Germany, it’s also a chance to look at how culture interacts with sports.

In March, I wrote about this topic in connection with the World Baseball Classic and the contrasting styles of Japan and Cuba.  The topic is equally interesting when it comes to soccer.  The NY Times has an article today about the Brazil team which notes the Brazilians’ unique style of play:

It has long been a maxim of international soccer that because of the grace, creativity and excitement with which Brazil plays, every fan has two favorite teams — his own national squad, and then, after it is eliminated, Brazil.

A few years ago, Joseph Page wrote a book called The Brazilians in which he discussed the intersection between soccer and culture in that country:

Soccer seemed to merge sport and samba.  During games fans often beat drums from start to finish, and in so doing they reinforced the rhythms of the players, who converted dribbling into a form of dance.  Their moves exuded spontaneity, one of the characteristics of the samba.

So what about other countries?  Do you think culture influences a team’s style of play?

By the way, if you want to keep up with the World Cup, a few sites to check out include the World Cup Blog put together by BootsnAll, the NY Times’ blog about the event, and ESPN’s Soccernet.

The design of most modern sportswear puts many Muslim women athletes in a curious bind: adhere to their faith and have their motions hampered or compromise their beliefs in the name of athletic performance?

This is obviously a conundrum for Muslim female athletes.  However, as National Geographic recently reported, a few companies have broken new ground by developing sportswear that covers the body, thus providing a more practical way for Islamic females to engage in athletics.  The article points out that this is not only a topic of interest in Muslim countries, but also in the growing Islamic communities in Europe and North America.