Comments on: As Yet Within That House

By: The World Cup Links the World, So We Steal

The World Cup Links the World, So We Steal — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:29:54 +0000

[...] while Brian celebrated the Switzerland defeat of Spain, Santapelota has an excellent take on the changes in store for the [...]

By: David

David — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:27:35 +0000

Hi Brian, this is a beautiful blog you’ve got going. I’m not a huge soccer fan, yet, but communities like you’ve fostered here might just put me over the edge.

Thanks.

By: World Cup thoughts, I has them | The War Eagle Reader

World Cup thoughts, I has them | The War Eagle Reader — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:03:59 +0000

[...] which would be the worst mark in World Cup history by nearly half a goal. I’m with this post: I’d like to say all these 1-1′s, 1-0′s, and 0-0′s were secret masterpieces [...]

By: Props to the Cultural Politics of the Football Blogosphere « Mabel, Mabel Set the Table

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:22:36 +0000

[...] “As Yet Within That House” by Brian Phillips begins with a meditation on opinion formation in the era of saturated media [...]

By: Brer Bridge

Brer Bridge — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:02:58 +0000

Great stuff. Even the comments are exceptional. I like reading academic polemics about footy as much as I enjoy watching and/or playing the game itself.

By: Michael Knepher

Michael Knepher — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:31:32 +0000

@Brian Phillips I find watching the univision.com feed with 7th-grade Spanish knocking about somewhere in the cobwebbed recesses of my brain provides a nice balance between preserving engagement with the full sensory experience of the game on TV, and dealing with numbing commentary and analysis in English. There's something about the rhythm of the Spanish-language announcers that follows the ebb and flow of the game much more closely than the ESPN commentators, who often get sidetracked in analysis and minutiae, and have to get pulled back into the action of the game. Plus, getting to hear an announcer call David Beckham "Spice Boy" is priceless.

By: Casey Wiley

Casey Wiley — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:27:15 +0000

@Brian Phillips Does the music you, or anyone out there, (sometimes) listen to accompanying games tend to change from game to game, team to team? Or does it mostly depend on what you’re feeling at the time, possibly unrelated to the games? Say, Metallica Black Album vs. V’s The Four Seasons. (Maybe the question is essentially this, and needs not be “answered”: why do we listen to what we listen to, and why does this sometimes happen when we’re watching soccer games on TV?)

I confess I rarely notice–but swear I will now!–but aren’t most highlights set to music? Seems like many of YouTube’s are.

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:45:37 +0000

@Casey Wiley I’d say it depends on the game and your own tastes. I often can’t take commentators early in the morning, so I’ll put on music instead. I miss the crowd, though.

Almost unsettling how much difference the audio accompaniment makes, but then that’s true of a live match, too, I guess—not quite the same deal if you’re in front of a guy with a bell.

By: Casey Wiley

Casey Wiley — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:31:57 +0000

Re: watching WC games with the sound off. I’ve been living in Vienna and can’t watch all the games at pubs, so when I’m home I’ve been watching on Eurosporttv (can’t pick up ESPN3 or UniVision online broadcasts), where there is no commentary. One simply hears the crowd (and the sounds of the crowd, or the One Sound, but that is for a past post) and the sounds of the struck ball and players groaning, or whatever. It’s quite nice, but was something to get used to: where’s the guy telling me stuff? Then I realized it was odd for me to “miss” that (I did feel strangely lonely at first), but then I felt like I was watching the game from a tunnel; there was the noise of fans, but I could not (usually) see them. Then I felt good.

Should we mute games, watch them, say, to classical music? Jazz? Our own words (verbal Tweet comments)? Or would music distort our experience?

By: Ty

Ty — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:34:06 +0000

Okay, one more try.

This post, and this game, catalyzed two things that have been rattling around in my head since the start of the World Cup: what is the quality that soccer and hockey both possess, that other sports don’t? Further, is that quality’s being lost on the general American sports fan why both sports struggle for US sports mindshare?

I’ve heard it said before by a soccer-fan friend of mine, that (American) football is the ultimate game of execution: after all the conditioning, scheme, preparation, film review, gameplan, and motivation, the players that execute the plan the best win. Meanwhile, soccer is the opposite; it’s a game of creation, of improvisation. Coaches can try to maximize their talent, but ultimately the games are won and lost by that talent.

Brian, I like this theory better. The winding and unwinding of tension. The build, the anticipation, the release. The electricity in the stands building to the square of the intensity of the players. The gasp as a centering pass crosses in front of the net; the “OOHHHAWWWW” as the redirect misses . . . it’s all the same.

The action-reaction-analysis cycle of (American) football, repeated a hundred times a game, fits perfectly with the way Americans seem to digest and react to information . . . simply putting your finger on the pulse of the game and synching your heartbeat to it for two hours isn’t the way we’re conditioned to react. But I think hockey, and soccer, can only be experienced that way.

Brilliant, brilliant piece. Thanks again.

Peace
Ty