Charles Apple

A few of today’s U.S. front pages suggest that we’re not quite so gracious about Team USA’s big draw Saturday over England in the opening round of the World Cup.

I say “big draw,” because England was expected to win, and perhaps win big. Because of the way the point-system works in the opening rounds of the Cup, a draw in a match like this is nearly as good as a win for the underdog team.

On other hand, perhaps the lack of grace is part of soccer — at least for English folks. I won’t pretend to understand. Not being a huge soccer fan myself, I’m learning, too.

Today’s New York Daily News — circulation 535,059 — seemed to rub England’s nose into the result…

…as did today’s New York Post, circulation 525,004. At least this one shows a certain amount of wit:

That Bunker Hill line is pure genius.

But the snark wasn’t limited to just the Big Apple tabs. Here’s a cutting headline by the Express-News of San Antonio, circulation 152,156:

Of the dozen or so U.S. papers putting the World Cup out front today, very few chose action shots. This one from the Associated Press shows the ill-fated goalkeeper and the very shot on which he goofed. But with the ball just meeting his gloves, it’s basically moments before the goof. In this shot, it looks as if he made the save.

And a couple of papers played off the old “shock and awe” cliché, and amusingly so:

That’s the Free Press of Burlington, Vt., circulation 41,901.

The Burlington County Times of Willingboro, N.J. — circulation 31,649 — expressed amazement over the surprise draw:

The Houston Chronicle – circulation 366,578 — gave that same AP shot prominent display with a refer to the sports section:

And the Intelligencer of Doylestown, Pa., featured an AP celebration shot on A1 but as a lead-in to its local story about the growing interest in soccer:

And a handful of papers focused on the level of fan interest in Saturday’s match. It might not have been as big as a Super Bowl is here in the U.S. But it was certainly a lot bigger than any soccer game has ever been before.

The best of these fan-focused front pages was by the Miami Herald, circulation 191,873:

That secondary shot was really the picture of the day. I’m surprised we didn’t see it more often on A1 today. Perhaps it was used prominently on sports fronts today. I hope so.

Here’s the Daily Tribune of Columbia, Mo. — circulation 18,300 — with a wonderful fan photo and that great “Shock and Draw” headline:

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UPDATE: That’s not local art. That’s an AP photo taken in Durban, South Africa. Something I’d have known had I slowed down enough to actually read the cutline. D’oh!

Granted, I never said this was local art. But still, I should have given more details.

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And here are three more fan-centric A1 centerpieces:

Left to right:

• The American-Statesman of Austin, Texas, circulation 140,602
• The Review-Journal of Las Vegas, Nev., circulation 170,123
• The Daily News of Naples, Fla., circulation 77,565

Naturally, I went in search of English newspapers today. I didn’t find a single one posted at the Newseum. That was disappointing. I suspect there are some interesting pages out there, though. ESPN today showed an amusing collection of harsh sports fronts. The funniest referred to the English goalkeeper has having “the Hands of Clod.”

I also looked for front pages that showed South Korea’s big win over Greece and Argentina’s win over Nigeria. I found a lot of South American papers that used pictures of Argentinian coach Diego Maradona on A1 but this was the best play I could find of that 1-0 win by Argentina:

That’s La Nacion of Buenos Aires, circulation 160,000.

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CRIME AT THE CUP

A big story has been hotel crime. Yes, South Africa has a very high crime rate. I was constantly warned while I was there, so I mostly kept to the safer areas.

So far, we’ve seen:

• A New Zealand TV crew robbed of all their equipment while they were out having dinner in Rustenberg.
• Cash stolen from three members of the Greek team in Durban last week.
• Cash stolen from two members of the Uruguayan team during their match with France on Friday in Cape Town. (The story says police suspect the culprit may have been a member of the Uruguayan delegation.)
• Portuguese journalists robbed at gunpoint in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
• A Chinese TV crew was held at gunpoint.

And all this is in addition to the one that has been previously reported: Three journalists who had their rooms prowled – while they slept — near Cape Town last week.

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OUTLAWING VUVUZUELAS?

And, speaking of crime, if vuvuzelas are outlawed, will only outlaws carry vuvuzelas?

That’s the other big news today: World Cup officials are considering banning those big plastic horns that cause the droning noise you’ve undoubtedly noticed if you’ve watched any of these matches.

The BBC reports that European broadcasters have complained of the noise. European fans, too, have complained that they can’t sing during matches because of the vuvuzela noise. Singing is apparently what European soccer fans like to do.

The South African Press Association reports that Argentinian players cited the droning as a reason for their less-than-impressive win Saturday. A French player has blamed the vuvuzelas for his team’s 0-0 tie on Friday.

My take: Stop whining. Vuvuzelas are part of the culture of South Africa. When you’re in Europe you can sing. When you’re in England, you can brawl, I suppose. And when you’re in the U.S., you can ignore soccer totally.

But if you’re going to go to South Africa for a month of soccer, you’ll have to listen to vuvuzelas.

Read the BBC story here. Find the SPA story here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 11:51 am and is filed under News design, Sports design, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.