An Australian in the US: national identity is one thing, but it’s hard to cheer for either World Cup team | Tom Hawking
Article excerpt
An Australian living in the United States faces an unexpected dilemma: the Socceroos are playing in the World Cup on American soil, yet the author finds themselves unable to muster enthusiasm for either team. The piece explores the tension between national loyalty and adopted-country allegiance, questioning whether either team's chants feel authentically appealing anymore. For someone who would typically jump at watching their home nation compete on football's grandest stage, something has shifted, a reflection on how identity and belonging become complicated when split between two countries.
The Socceroos playing on football’s biggest stage in my adopted country would normally have me racing to book tickets. Not this year
Is “USA! USA! USA!” a more fundamentally obnoxious chant than “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!”? As an Australian who has spent most of the last 15 years living in the United States and is now a permanent resident, the Socceroos’ World Cup group match against the USA raises some questions. Has my adopted nation dethroned my homeland as the world’s foremost exponent of being unconscionably terrible to immigrants? And on a more personal level … who do I support here?
Well, look, OK, there’s really only one answer to that second question. I’m not an especially patriotic type, but if anything does bring out my Australian-ness, it’s the World Cup, perhaps because it’s one of the few events at which we can still claim to be underdogs. And now, two decades after I rose at dawn to watch Australia’s dreams dashed by the intersection of Lucas Neill’s leg and Fabio Grosso’s general vicinity, I find myself living in a country hosting the tournament.
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