U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Why do the athletic achievements of people I've never even met have such an enormous impact on my emotional state? It really has no consequence on my personal life, I don't gamble on games so it doesn't effect me financially, nothing is really going to change in my daily activities based on the outcome of a sporting event other than how I perceive the world around me... Let's set the scene for today's events...

I've been following the World Cup pretty rabidly... waking up early before work to watch games. Sneakily following matches on my computer at work, scheduling my lunch break to catch as much of the action as I can on the TV in the kitchen. So this morning I got ready early so I could watch the first half of USA - Algeria before I left for work. Then I listened to the first few minutes of the second half in my car on the way to my job, then watched the game on the TV in the kitchen there before I had to be at my post at 8:30. At that point I was following the action in a chat room on my phone because our network was down today. But as the time disappeared from the game I grew disheartened. Before I could believe it 90 minutes were in the book, the score was still tied after numerous chances and what appeared to be a legit goal taken away for the second straight game, and the US was going to be eliminated. I was already plotting how I wouldn't care about the rest of the World Cup because the refs had screwed the US and soccer was just a giant waste because superior teams could be held back. It wasn't fair! There's a reason all us smart Americans ignore this stupid game most of the time. I was going to be depressed and looking at the negative side of everything for at least the next couple of hours if not the whole day. And then one word appeared in lower case letters in the chat box of the webcast I'd been forced to resort to...

"score"

Here's what went through my head in the next 1.4 seconds:

Yes! Wait... I'm not hearing anything from the people watching the game on TV in the kitchen... maybe it was England scoring again since they were simulchatting both games. No - it was the commenter from the US game. Please tell me it wasn't Algeria scoring. I'm gonna leave my post for a couple seconds and run to the TV...

Yes! The shouting came from the kitchen as I made my way there... but last time this happened a ref took away the winning goal on a phantom call... the 1 is up on the board -- they are replaying it -- YES!!! U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!

That was a remarkable turnaround in emotion. From unbelieving, angry dismay to complete exaltation... just a giant sigh of relief. And now I feel better about myself and the world around me. I guess in this case it's nationalistic pride -- but I don't think I've ever met someone from Algeria or Slovenia -- so it's not like they were gonna rub my face in it. (I'm sure both countries inhabitants are just masters of smack talk though). So why does it make such a difference to me?

I connect my fortunes to teams from Detroit because that's the geographical region I grew up in, but I don't live there anymore -- so it's not really "home" but maybe its still providing an emotional connection to "home." Which I suppose would explain my allegiance to teams like the Buffalo Bills and Penn State. Even though I didn't live there, my parents were from those regions and rooted for those teams -- so by rooting for them, I felt emotionally connected to my parents.

Is it that simple? Sports just give me an outlet to share emotions with family and friends? So even if the U.S. had lost shouldn't that have been ok too? It would've given me the chance to express disappointment and frustration with those I care about. But perhaps I feel an excess of those negative feelings in my everyday life. So by spending time and energy connecting to teams that win, I substitute their success for the lack of my own success? That's a bit depressing... Oh well. I'm gonna shut that part of my brain down for now and watch the replay of today's game on ESPN. U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!!