Random song from Kidz Hitz vol. 14 vs. random song from Best of Euro Disco vol. 37.
Everyone should cheer for Team Europe @ the World Cup
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Random song from Kidz Hitz vol. 14 vs. random song from Best of Euro Disco vol. 37.
Choralone
Registered User
I guess I'm just not a nationalist so I really don't care that Team Europe isn't a country or whatever. "My country's team won the Hockey World Cup - it's the proudest day of my life," said no one ever.
I like this attempt to make a super-team out of the best players from the dregs of, well, competitively-challenged European programs. I'm a Kopitar fan and like seeing him get a chance to play.
I like this attempt to make a super-team out of the best players from the dregs of, well, competitively-challenged European programs. I'm a Kopitar fan and like seeing him get a chance to play.
Interesting. I think you're in the minority though - on both sides of the pond.
Also, the notion that the national teams of Switzerland and Slovakia are "competetively-challenged" is a tautology. They can't prove that they can compete if you don't let them compete. I guess one you'd have to define "compete" first but from what I've seen so far, "Team Europe" can't compete because the players are in cruise mode.
It's not that uncommon in America. Most people are trained to follow international sports. The Olympics come on for two weeks every two years and every cheers on the new heartwarming story, but after that the majority of people go back to watching the NFL.
Past Considerations
Registered User
Are you fine with combing USA and Canada into a single team too? Yes or no?
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Choralone
Registered User
For this tournament? Absolutely.
I'm cheering for Team USA, but I want to see Doughty do well for Team Canada. It think it would be fun to team up with Canada (though they don't need us). I'd get to see players play together that I never would otherwise.
For me, the Olympics is the one where the national pride and all that matter...to a degree. Same goes for the World Cup....in football, that is. But for the World Cup of Hockey? Pffft.
I don't think I'm alone as an American - though perhaps in the minority - in being a bit jaded seeing my country's athletes whomp on other countries with a smaller GDP and population in international competition. Americans in general love an underdog, and we aren't one in most cases.
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Seriously, combining Canada and USA under a made-up crest that means nothing to the players? After the rivalry we have just witnessed between Canada and USA, in exhibition games noneless? Alrighty then.
Imo, they should either drop the national teams completely or make all teams gimmick. Sweden could have been the "Vikings", Finland the "Lions", Russia the "Bears", Canada the "Maple Leafs" etc. Just don't mix national teams with made-up teams. Throwing the gimmick teams in there makes as much sense as throwing in two NHL teams to compete with the national teams.
You don't need to be a nationalist to enjoy international tournaments.
I cannot exclude that international matches are often an occasion for actual "nationalist" (the worst meaning of the term) to roam around claiming that their country is better than the others, but for most of the people international tournaments is just enjoying watching a team that means something to you.
I am not paritucularly proud of being swiss, for example, the place I was born in and the family/society that raised me is not coming from an active choice, is just pure chance.
You will never see me goin around with a swiss flag tattoed on my arm, babbling around about "swiss pride" or any other "nationalistic" concept.
Yet again, I love to watch and support Team Switzerland, because I fell related to it. The same way I support FC interanzionale, because Milan is the town where I was born and I feel a connection to the team.
I really do not enjoy watching matches between two random teams that means nothing to me, it is just boring and feels pointless*.
Ok, if in a pub with friends I can very well enjoy a Fin vs USA match for example, just for the sake of good hockey level, but I would never tune on it in my living room, I would always find something better to do.
*Except for one occasion, the South Africa - Japan match (won by Japan) at the last Rugby World Cup. That was the singular most entertaining and amazing moment of sport that I can remember through my whole life.
...and of course that match would have never taken place if the Rugby international federations decided to act like the NHL, because Japan would have not been there, replaced by some "pacific islands minus Fiji and New Zealand all star team".
Past Considerations
Registered User
Well, at least you don't have a double standard then.
We can soon say goodbye to best-on-best hockey at Olympics, so maybe might make sense to start wishing NHL would take this tournament more seriously since it is all that is soon left.
....and when Ryan Lasch is the number 1 scoring threat for team USA at the Olympics?
Choralone
Registered User
How about regional teams? They would combine more than one nation, but they would have more meaning that some random combination. For instance, would you be interested in seeing Team Nordic (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) go up against Team North America (US and Canada)? How about a Team Czeck-Slovakia?
I'm not saying everyone, but what seemingly half North Americans here doesn't understand is, that playing for "Team Europe" barely makes any more sense to a guy like Mats Zuccarello than playing for "Team North America" would.
As a Swede, I'd feel more at home in Canada than I would in Finland. I know that without ever having been in Canada. That's nothing against Finland, it's just a situation of being fluent in English and only knowing how to say "hi", "one", "two", "****" and "****" in Finnish.
I certainly feel a lot more North American than Spanish, French or Italian. We all love our neighbours in Europe, but that's all. Most people here struggles even with European geography. We don't see ourselves as one big country, and certainly not when it comes to sports.
As a Swede, I'd feel more at home in Canada than I would in Finland. I know that without ever having been in Canada. That's nothing against Finland, it's just a situation of being fluent in English and only knowing how to say "hi", "one", "two", "****" and "****" in Finnish.
I certainly feel a lot more North American than Spanish, French or Italian. We all love our neighbours in Europe, but that's all. Most people here struggles even with European geography. We don't see ourselves as one big country, and certainly not when it comes to sports.
Yeah, that would make more sense, as it'd be the same for everyone. I don't think it would generate much revenue for the NHL though, so I don't think we'll ever see it happen.
I don't know who would want to team up with Russia though. For most of the European countries there's no real connection. And for nations like Belarus and Latvia who has a history within the Soviet Union, I don't think they like Russia very much. At least not Latvia.
Belarus is part of a customs union and visa regime with Russia. Whether they'd want to partner up or not is one thing, but politically they are pretty good buddies
But everyone in Finland speaks Swedish!
A lot of people there doesnt (maybe because they dont want to, like the far right Finns...), though its still no problem to get around lets say Helsinki with Swedish only, enough people can speak Swedish still. But it maybe is dying out a bit? The Swedish culture and language in Finland that is.
I dont think people are that much interested in it. If you are lets say swede, why would you go for this idea when your hockey school produce so many NHLers and you have great rivalry with Finnland?
People also have to know how their hockey stands. Combining teams does not tell you anything about level of hockey in Norway.
Czechoslovakian team would be interesting experiment. It will all depend on whether fans would accept it. But again even if it could be strong team, it would just cover problems of these two respective federations. Still these countries are probably closest ones in Europe in terms of culture, language etc so it is possible to imagine it. I dont think the rest shares so much. People are quite sensitive to these proposals as the differences between countries are so big that there is hard to find reason and will to make such a teams. A lot of states are also pretty young and had to battle quite hard for their independece or identity....
In case this happens I guess people will ask soon "hey we have our own players, why not set up our national team"? More teams, more fun. Most people really follow their national team not because of quality but because of identity. We all are used to yell at them and being anxious when they play like s.....
you can make tourney based on quality but in the end of the day, soon or later people will miss that relation. Its not like building team in Las Vegas where they dont have any. This smth like built better team and forget the old ones.
I don't know. I work for an American company and my colleagues (both genders) are pretty competitive whenever my home country happens to play theirs in whatever sport.
But then again that's probably a different crowd than the ones watching NFL on TV.
99% of the time Finns just aren't fluent in Swedish and hence opt for English. I know that's the case for me. I did 8 years of Swedish in school and graduated with the second highest grade in it. 11 years later, I can't speak Swedish for ****. I still understand casual conversation and newspapers with some trouble, but producing the language myself, no way. You just lose the ability when you never use it. I've been to Sweden many times but I always speak English there, which is very easy as Swedes tend to be good at it.
Of course it doesn't help that studying the language feels so useless already in school. Everyone knows it's largely a waste of time as you could study some more useful language, say German, French or Spanish, but you are forced to do Swedish due to some ancient ideals.
As i don't have any stakes, i don't care who wins it, but i'd love if the tourney would be a complete european affair from the semi finals onwards 
Don't say that, we have obligatory french (altough not 8 years) here in the swiss german part and almost everybody feels exactly the same as you do with swedish. It's the same with the romands and german and now you often end up talking to someone from and in your own country.. in english
Hire Sather
He Is Our Star
How do you have such pride for a tournament where players who would normally play for Canada aren't allowed to because of some stupid gimmick rules designed to add another TEAM to the tournament to raise interest? Add another TEAM to a tournament that is suppose to be about NATIONS.
Don't say that, we have obligatory french (altough not 8 years) here in the swiss german part and almost everybody feels exactly the same as you do with swedish. It's the same with the romands and german and now you often end up talking to someone from and in your own country.. in english
Oh, I didn't know that, but it makes sense
I guess the lesson is that studying any language without the proper motivation is largely a futile affair. English is the exception, as it's universally recognized as a lingua franca.
