Differences in soccer between the USA and Colombia

Graciela:  Before we begin I want to congratulate the USA on a wonderful job at the World Cup. The team played very well and was impressive to watch. I sincerely think that with a good referee the USA would have won over Germany.

Michel:  The most obvious difference between the two countries is we, along with Canada, are the only places to call the game soccer. The other Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) countries call it football or some derivation of that. Here in Colombia they write it as futbol.

When I attended high school in Michigan back in the late 1960's the school had no soccer team. My sons did play at their school many years later, but any foreign exchange student could pretty much run circles around American players.

As soon as a boy can walk in Colombia the father puts a ball in front of him to kick. They have futbol schools. The competition to get accepted into the better ones is so intense that 200 boys compete for 20 possible spots.

Graciela:  For a bit of information American Alejandro Bedoya, who played for the U.S. in this year's World Cup, has ties with Colombia. His father played for one of Colombia's best teams the Millonarios. His grandfather played for the Colombian team of Deportes Quindio.

 Your team set two records in their play this year. Nineteen year old Julian Green became the youngest player to score a goal in this year's matches. But it was American goal tender Tim Howard who now holds the record for most saves in a single game in the history of the World Cup.

Michael:  I have seen it estimated by ESPN that 18.5 million U.S. citizens watched us play Portugal in the World Cup this year. That is the most ever and accounts for about 5% of the population. However in this South American country of 43 million I believe to easily be in the ball park to say that 80% or more of the population followed the match between Colombia and Brazil. Heck the president of the country even gave all government employees the afternoon off. On game day it is not unusual to see 50% of the Bogotanos (people from Bogotá) wearing the yellow jersey of the team. TV's are set up in bars, restaurants and coffee shops. In many parks they place very large screen TVs on the back of trucks for the people to watch.

Even the on field celebrations are different after scoring a goal. A humorus example is a video that has over 1.8 million views showing the Colombian team after James Rodríguez put one in the net.

I could find no information about celebrations for the U.S. team returning home from Brazil. Just seems to be that they got off the plane and went to their house.

After loosing in the quarter finals, the Colombian team returned to a hero's welcome. Eighty thousand people gathered to welcome the team. In fact the front page photo in the paper,Publimetro, showing the players on stage had the caption of Welcome Heroes.

Graciela:  I know that the Superbowl affects relationships in the U.S. Michael and I wrote an blog on our site about relationships and futbol here in Colombia.

Michael:  Constantly in the Olympics the USA kicks butt. But soccer is relatively new to us. I see a slow trend of improvement and urge all citizens to support our team and have us win our first ever World Cup in 2018.

Michael is a long time Michigander who now lives with his Colombian wife. Graciela, in Bogotá. They write information about their city and Colombia for tourists on their blog site.