A couple of folks have expressed surprise that the hometown fans in Vancouver had a good time booing Team USA (who dropped the Bronze Medal game to the Finns yesterday) at the World Junior Championship:
Fans in Vancouver officially smashed the attendance record at the world junior championship and unofficially set the mark for the most blatant and mean-spirited anti-Americanism ever displayed at the event.The booing wasn't as fierce or as vitriolic in the United States' 4-2 loss to Finland yesterday in the bronze-medal game, but things did get nastier as the match progressed. Near the end, fans chanted the "Goodbye" song, then broke out into a chorus of "Overrated! Overrated!"
Excuse me if I just shrug. Besides, Team USA wouldn't have been treated this way if the fans hadn't percieved them to be a threat.
Here's John Buccigross:
The "USA sucks" chants are a bit much, but they are telling. Canada knows its hockey, and fans there see America is starting to produce high-level hockey talent on par with Canada for the first time in the history of Western civilization. In fact, the Americans have better, more talented players than Canada does.
So I guess we could have hoped to be treated like Norway, a country that had absolutely no chance to medal. No thanks. I'll take the heckling every time.
And congrats to Canada on winning the Gold with a 5-0 defeat of the Russians.
You write this because the US is the epitome of sportsmanship, right?
The US timeline appears to be as follows…
1. US enters the tournament as the overwhelming favourite.
2. US stumbles through the round robin.
3. Jack Johnson takes an unnecessary, illegal, Marcus Vick-like shot at a Canadian player just as Canada scores an empty netter to win the Canada – US game. Lucky for him, he escapes punishment.
4. US loses easily to the Russians in the semi.
5. US disappears for the bronze medal game.
I see nothing in their actions that warrants respect and nothing on this ice that tells me that they were not overrated.
Is the US better than it was 10 years ago? Yes.
Is the US closing the gap on Canada? Yes.
Could team USA beat team Canada? Yes.
Was the chanting because we have some inner fear of US hockey? No.
Was the chanting just rubbing salt in the wound? Likely.
Would they have chanted like that if the US was predicted to be a bottom 4 team (even if it was a weak year, not a weak (read: Norway) system)? No.
Think about it – what they did was no different than the Yankee fans chanting “Who’s your Daddy?” to Pedro. At least they didn’t stoop to the level of Celtics fans who chanted “Wife Beater” every time Jason Kidd touched the ball in the NBA playoffs a few years ago.