Personal sympathy and International rivalry

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I was watching a telly-program on BBC a while ago, called "Most Shocking World Cup Moments", in which I heard "Although we (England) might like to think we are, we are not Germany's biggest rivals. It's this lot." And then you see a chanting crowd of orange-clad supporters. "A Holland-Germany must be the... I'd say most bitter rivalry in Europe."
More hereafter about 4 minutes. I love that Scottish guy in the blue shirt btw.



20 years later things have turned more friendly, but the rivalry is still there. At least for us Dutchies. It's not as bitter as in the 90s. I'd even favour the Germans over Portugal, Italy, France or Brazil.

I also have much sympathy for countries like Denmark, Ivory Coast and Belgium (what happened to the last?). I don't know why. Maybe because Denmark and Belgium are a bit like my own country... Ivory Coast? No idea! Maybe it's got something to do with the colour of their shirts?

For me, this all mainly counts for sports like football (played with your feet, not hands) and speedskating. Because these are the sports we cheeseheads like to stay home for, watch the telly and pop a bottle of lager.

So, what about you?
What foreign country is seen as the biggest rival where you live?
And what countries do you personally favour?

My guess for rivalry would be England-Argentina and France-Italy, for football at least. We don't really play "Drag the 2-pointed ball" here.

 

I can't think of many sports events that I would ever support England in, so I'd have to say that England is my biggest "rival", followed by Australia. But beyond that, a lot depends on what sport you're talking about. In neutral games, I will often back the underdog, but that status depends on the sport. In cricket and rugby, USA is usually the underdog, but in basketball they're often the favourite. I find the Canadian cricket team to be quite entertaining, as well as the Japanese rugby team.

So to sum up, I support New Zealand, and whoever is playing against England or Australia, unless they are raving underdogs (e.g. I would back England in a basketball or ice hockey game against USA).

In the soccer World Cup, I am supporting New Zealand, followed by South Korea and any African team. Go Algeria!!

 

I agree. That dude is awesome!


As for the USA, I think it's between us and the English. Ever since the US won the Revolutionary War, I think the US has had this unquenchable thirst to beat the English at anything and everything...but in a weird, friendly sort of way.

HOWEVER, if it's *not* the US vs England...we have this odd desire to see the English win. If the English somehow manage to beat the US, I will then root for them (and Germany) to make it to the finals.


At work today, everyone was glued to the TV or the internet, and the general overtone towards the English team was, "Kill! Kill!! Kill!!! But when the game ended in a tie, everyone started naming players on the English team that they like.

But that's just me and my observations over the past 5 or so years.

 

We usually root for whoever plays against Swedes, so Sweden is obviously our greatest rival. Mostly because Finland and Sweden usually excel at same kind of sports, and we've had some bitter losses to Swedes in past. We don't have a similar rivalry with Russia though, oddly enough although the history would give some background to it.

 

It goes like this with me... Argentina, Germany, France, Scotland... in that order. Quite a big gap between the 2nd and 3rd. Can't STAND Argentina.

 

I liked Maradona the so called hand of God, with a leap and fist like that he should be playing Aussie Rules. He/d make a good ruckman..

 

England is pretty much the be all and end all of rivalries for Ireland. '800 years of oppression' and all that. I tend to favour England myself if we aren't playing but there's a large section who'd be virulently anti-English no matter what.

Rivalry mightn't be the right word though. England don't really reciprocate the hate and tend to look kindly on us. They've a long list of other countries they hate more. And it's very rare that we've a team good enough to be competitive against them (in any sport). That's probably true for a lot of the old colonial powers, think Senegal versus France in 02.

Our Celtic cousins (Scotland and Wales) would get our support when we're not playing. The US. Australia and New Zealand all have a large Irish diaspora so get our support in football. We like Germany a lot more than most European countries, doubtless a result of staying out of WWII.

 

Yeah, we don't mind the Irish too much. Except when your lock tries to kick our captain's head in - not sure what he thought he was doing there.

 

Being an Irish Scotish Austrialian I can empathize with Déise but I have no wish to get political. So solely from a sporting point of veiw, the Pom's (England) and to a slightly less extent the Kiwi's (New Zealand)

 

Fair play is probably the main factor is determining my view of a team/athlete.

Personally, it depends on the sports - I tend to get attached far more to specific athletes /teams then nations, but in general:

I cheer for Russia in ice skating,(although my favourite couple ever is Lithuanian), and like them on the Olympics, too.
Fond of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England ( I know, really shouldn't all be in the same sentence ) also New Zealand and Australia (because you guys are about as far away from here as possible and rather snazzy in your own way - and because of DM and Aik)

Generally, I will root for the underdog, especially if they are doing their best - even if they are playing against our team.
Also, a country with a tradition in a sport. (For example, I really think England should kick some sense into her players and win *something* in football already.)

I can't stand Italian football. Italy would sort of also be a disliked rival in volleyball.
I can't stomach teams that blatantly ignore fair play - and athletes/themes that follow it vehemently get my instant, wholehearted support, regardless who they are.


I'm absolutely not getting involved in the rivals section, country wise. There are times I think we are out to treat everyone as mortal enemies in sports. Other times... Balkans. To use Dotty's phrase, enough said.
It's a rather common view here that the team/representation must not lose to Croatian teams.
(Although, it's more then common here to cheer for the foreign clubs when the city rival is playing them.)
By tradition, many people also root for the country that kicks our own squad out of a competition (I think the logic is, "less shame in losing to a winner")

Rooting for Zmajčiki is not uncommon.

Hungary would be a respected (not hated) rival in water polo.


I have to say I don't really share the general rivalry spirit of the majority people I know. Sure, I like to see our representation win, but before all else, I enjoy watching international sport events. Rivalries don't mean much to me - and I probably end up cheering for over 10 countries in just about any contest... usually for silly reasons.

 

Ahem. Cough. Shuffle.

I wonder if there is anyone else from New Zealand around here other than DM and Aik.

Oh yeah, Rotku. I knew there was someone else.

DM, Aik, and Rotku. Nobody else on SP from New Zealand. Only 3. No, there's also Tassadar and Nataraja. So only 5. That's all. Nobody else cool from New Zealand.

 

No other cool, nice guy from NZ, none at all.

 

Now I feel a bit bad. The criterion was solely RP. DM and Aik I RPed tons with. You other cool people (and birds) I know far less.

... and Aik is Australian.

 

The german /dutch rivalry is big. In fieldhockey a loss is allowed, not against the Germans.

We have a German Temp working with us now. We are confused, he has not started any wars and the jews are safe(as soon as we have found them). We even started to like germans.(they are just like us)

I would say that the rivalry betweeen Sweden and Finland is greater, and since I lived a while in Turku I favor Suomi.

 

I said support in football. We don't support ye in things ye might actually win. We're not used to that.

 

Um... German and Dutch men play... field hockey??? We do play field hockey in the US, but it is an all-girls sport...

Or is field hockey the European equivalent of lacrosse or something like that?

 

No, field hockey is quite a big sport in Europe... and the world, really.

 

Hockey is a huge sport and definitely played by men and women. It's an Olympic sport!!

 

Field Hockey? Sorry - I cannot get the image of women in skirts running around a field with sticks hitting a ball, and then trying to imagine men doing the same. (Well, maybe Scotsmen, but other than that, no.) I had no idea it was popular sport outside of the US, and I certainly didn't think men played it.