Futbol and Food: What So Proudly We Hail

DC soccer Fans pack DuPont Circle to watch game in event hosted by German Embassy

With the USA team playing against Germany for a chance to move on to the next round of World Cup play, much of America found itself in the grip of high-grade soccer fever. And nowhere was the USA-USA-USA frenzy more apparent than in Washington, D.C. the capital of the nation's politics and  patriotism.

Of course, the fact that the game was scheduled for noon on a Thursday did pose one problem - while it would start at lunch hour, it would run over into the working day afternoon. And then there was both the pre-game and post-game hoopla that you wouldn't want to miss.

But USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann, with tongue firmly in his cheek, had a remedy. The coach had posted a signed, handwritten excuse letter online that read:

To whom it may concern:

Please excuse (insert name) from work on Thursday, June 26th.

I understand that this absence may reduce the productivity of your workplace, but I can assure you that it is for an important cause. The #USMNT has a critical World Cup game vs. Germany and we will need the full support of the nation if we are to advance to the next round.

By the way, you should act like a good leader and take the day off as well. Go USA!

Jurgen Klinsmann
Head Coach
U.S. Men’s National Team

Since we are retirees, my wife Judy and I didn't need Klinsmann's excuse, but we did want to lend "our full support" to the team.

As 60-somethings, we're not really into wild face painting and wearing outlandish red, white, and blue garb. But as soccer fans, we knew that patriotism does play an important role in the World Cup.

So we decided to engage in a special pre-game activity. We would head to the National Archives to hear historian and author Marc Leepson discuss his new book What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis (his friends and family all called him Frank - bet you didn't know that) Scott Key.  I mean what is more patriotic than a book detailing the creation of our national anthem and the life of the man who created it. 

Of course, since the talk started at noon, it meant we would miss the first half of the game, but fans have to make sacrifices for their team, right?

Our plan started superbly. As we exited the Metro Station at the Archives, we were greeted by 2 volunteers from the Newseum. They were handing out small American flags (now we would have something to wave) and a card advertising Anchorman: The Exhibit now at the DC museum of news. I took this as a great sign. Anchorman stars Will Farrell as Ron Burgandy. Farrell was attending the game in Recife, Brazil. You would be able to spot him sitting next to Teddy Goalsavelt, a dead-ringer for former President Teddy Roosevelt. Farrell had also delivered a great comic message to a group of the 20,000 Americans attending the World Cup in person. 

The positive signs continued inside the Archives. The program began with an old black and white film clip of the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner". We joined the crowd in lending our voices to the anthem. This occurred at almost the exact moment the game in Recife got underway. 

For his part, Leepson acknowledged the importance of the game. "I'll knock off early so we can see the rest of the soccer match," he said with a laugh. Actually, he held to that pledge. Normally, book talks at the Archives take an hour. Leepson's was done in 45 minutes. Outside the Archives, I checked my phone. The game was tied 0-0.

Earlier, Judy and I had decided to watch the game at the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, the largest sports bar close to the Archives. I continued to check my phone as we walked to Penn Quarter. It was still a scoreless tie at the end of half.

Arriving at the sports bar, we were eyed by the bouncers. Even 60-year-olds in DC must produce ID to enter club events where alcohol is being served. As we showed ID, a manger came outside, pointed to us and said" "Let those 2 in. Then we're at capacity."

A small portion of the crowd at the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern

Inside, we saw that he was right. Both levels were packed with fans, many sporting red, white, and blue attire. There was barely room for us to wave our small flags. I looked at Judy. I knew she wouldn't want to stay. "This place smells like (our son) Michael's fraternity house," she said. Which I knew immediately was wife speak for "I am not spending another minute in here." I made a quick decision. I knew they would be showing the game at Clyde's, one of Judy's favorite Penn Quarter/GalleryPlace/Chinatown eateries which was only a block-and-a-half away.

"Let's go to Clyde's," I said.

 Judy readily agreed. 

At Clyde's, the crowd situation was much the same. It was no-seats, no-standing room in both the massive downstairs and more intimate upstairs bar. But we were able to finagle a table that allowed us to view one of the TVs. Granted, the view wasn't quite as good as the one President Barack Obama was enjoying aboard Air Force One. But we could see the players and the play through a break in the huge plants and ferns that decorate the upstairs dining room.

President Obama watches the game on Air Force One

Judy and I watch the game from our table at Clyde's

Now it was time for the final part of my game-winning plan to kick in. For the USA to advance, I knew we had to order just the right lucky lunch. I decided on a perfect USA combo: Maryland crab soup and a Creole cornmeal-crusted catfish po'boy. Then Judy did the unthinkable. She ordered a hamburger. Hamburger? Hamburg was a city in Germany. And no sooner did our waitress walk away with our order, than a collective groan of agony rose through Clyde's. Germany had scored.

Now, I had to hope that my All-American meal would have enough (crab and tomato) juice to overcome Judy's clearly German choice. Well, to shorten our story, it didn't. Despite an offensive flurry in injury time, Germany' sole goal held for a 1-0 win. But apparently my menu choice did have enough power to help Portugal defeat Ghana, meaning that, despite the loss, the USA would be advancing to the next round in the tournament.

Of course, now the hard work would really commence. I'll  have to figure the perfect meal to help our American team defeat a talented Belgian team. And I'll have to keep Judy from ordering Belgian waffles or moules frittes, the national dish of Belgium.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Even More on USA, World Cup Soccer

Nation stops to watch: Has soccer truly arrived in America? (from USA Today)

World Cup fever takes over Washington (from The Hill)

Tim Howard: He's Tattooed, he has Tourette's, and he keeps that ball out of the net. (from The Daily Beast)

What's next for the U.S.? (from USA Today)

The odds of the U.S. beating Belgium and every other team still left in the World Cup. (from Data Lab)

The forgotten factor in this year's World Cup is a video game. (from The Washington Post)

Does it matter if you sing your national anthem? (from The Washington Post)

48 of the most outrageous fans from the World Cup so far. (from BuzzFeed

Will Robots Someday Win Soccer's World Cup?

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry about the Smithsonian, many of which appeared in 1 of the institution's blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

In 1997, man and machine went head-to-head in a battle of strategical prowess; after six games of chess, world champion Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer. It was hailed as a seminal moment in computer science—if a computer could beat a human at chess, a game long held as the pinnacle of mental strategy, what else could computers accomplish?

A little more than three months after Kasparov's defeat, a cadre of robotics experts sought to push another boundary in artificial intelligence. Convening in Nagoya, Japan, during the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 40 teams of robotics experts participated in the world's first Robotics Cup. Their stated objective: By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.

The manifesto, which might seem more like science fiction than a practical goal, wasn't an entirely new idea to the robotics community even in 1997. The concept of a robot soccer game had been kicked around the robotics community for years—it was first mentioned by Professor Alan Mackworth, of the University of British Columbia, in his paper "On Seeing Robots," where he argued that building a robotic soccer team could help solve several problems of modern robotics (their inability to cooperate, for instance, or their inability to determine where the ball might go). From that paper, Mackworth and his team at UBC launched the Dynamo Project, the world's first attempt at an autonomous robotic soccer team. The Dynamo Project carried out a series of successful experiments from 1992 through 1994, and is seen by many as the crucial precursor to the Robotics Cup.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Smithsonian.com, click here

Brazil's Dance with the Devil: Love of Soccer Battles Sports Greed

Today, activist sports writer Dave Zirin is in Brazil covering the biggest sports story in the world - soccer's World Cup. But 3 days ago, he was here in DC talking about his new book, Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy with a standing-room only crowd of fellow social advocates at Busboys and Poets.

For more than a year, Brazilians, who as a nation consider soccer a veritable religion, have been protesting the staging of the World Cup by FIFA, the event's organizer, and a too-compliant government, claiming the combination is responsible for financial waste and corruption that is jeopardizing the country's educational, health, and housing services.

Dave Zirin signs books after his talk

"People are protesting soccer in Brazil. In Brazil, soccer is a religion. Imagine a protest in New York City against pizza," Zirin said. "Polls show that 55% of Brazil wants its team to lose. FIFA is as popular as FEMA was in New Orleans after Katrina."

Zirin, who has been covering the Olympics and World Cups for more than a decade, says "the waste and carnage" of such events is mind-boggling. For example, winter events have paid millions to fly snow to mountains. The cost of the recent corruption-filled Winter Olympics in Sochi has exceed $9 billion dollars.

The sports writer often quotes his friend, former Olympian and 1968 Mexico City protester John Carlos, who says the Olympics are only held every 4 years because "it takes them 4 years to count the money."

"It's not that there's no money, it's a question of who gets the money," Zirin said. That controversy is particularly acute in Brazil since the country will also be hosting the Olympics in 2 years.

Here are just some of the statistics for the 2014 World Cup. It is expected to cost more than $15 billion to put on. FIFA required that brand new stadiums be built, many with luxury boxes for only the richest fans. One stadium, constructed in the Amazon Rainforest, has not yet been completed and is rumored to be used as an outdoor prison center after the games are completed. More than 250,000 Brazilians have been displaced from their homes. The government has mobilized more troops for the event than America deployed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This is all satire so dark that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wouldn't have dared to cover it," Zirin said.

But many in Brazil have been striking back, taking to the streets and staging protest strikes. "They are saying we want FIFA quality wages, we want FIFA quality schools, we want FIFA quality hospitals," Zirin said.

The situation is heightened because of Brazil's long history with European colonialism, slavery, and racial and economic inequality.  "They do not want their soccer to become just another commodity for foreign consumption," Zirin said.

The sports writer maintains that Americans should be following the Brazilian happenings as the country's people take on authoritarian power, corporate greed, and political cronyism and corruption. "All that is what makes Brazil our story, too," Zirin maintains.

Zirin believes that the Brazilian actions may be the beginning of a world-wide movement to curb the excesses and abuses of giant sporting competitions. "I see a renaissance of revolution against these sports organizations that act like Mafia cartels for their own personal enrichment," Zirn said.

And while that may or may not be true, it is certain that with soccer's enormous popularity, the whole world will be watching what happens both on and off the field in Brazil for the next 4 weeks.