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Don’t Call It Soccer!
< < Back to dont-call-it-soccerMy WOUB colleague Julia Rabe does not like the word “soccer.”
“I believe it should be called “football,” just because what you call “football,” it’s just rarely played with the foot anyway,” she said emphatically.
Rabe is a 22-year-old German exchange student at Ohio University. During today’s pivotal World Cup match between the United States and Germany, she’ll be cheering amongst her Team USA colleagues in the WOUB newsroom for her home country – though she explained that she prefers that both American and German teams qualify for the quarter finals.
Rabe said that rooting for Germany has some historical significance. After Nazi Germany, a period of extreme nationalism, displays of patriotism were made rare in order to avoid returning to a dark time in German history. But when the World Cup was hosted in German in 2006, patriotism became slightly more acceptable.
“The World Cup is actually sort of the only occasion where we get to show a little bit of pride for our country,” she explained.
To hear more about Rabe’s experience watching the World Cup in the Athens, click on the audio player above.