Hurst66,
I'm the one who reviewed "How Soccer Explains the World" on this board. I was thinking about the passion and violence described in the book while watching Croatia play Australia. Obviously Croatia has a long and storied history of passionate (i.e. violent) soccer. Australia is widely regarded for their passion for all things athletic. (Fortunately, they haven't developed a true sense of hooliganism.) It made for a very intense game, made all the more interesting by inept refereeing. For the neutral observer, that was a classic game. Having the US involved in a game like that would go a long way to raising the standing of the sport here. But is the problem that our fans aren't passionate enough, or that our team doesn't inspire passion?
