Interview 2: an english perspective
Krimson is a freshman at Georgia State University. He was born in Manchester, England, but has lived in Georgia for the past 8 years where he has participated in the same high school soccer program as me. Krimson continues to play soccer at an indoor soccer facility weekly with a new team.
After getting our autoethnogrophy assignment from Professor Julien and learning that we would be conducting interviews on our topics, I immediately thought about asking Krimson. He does not just love the sport, he lives it. Whenever I hear from him there is always some type of soccer involved. I called Krimson one day and began to ask him some of the introductory questions from my list. Krimson believes that soccer is the greatest sport in the world and that its ability to connect millions of people around the world, despite the various different cultures there are, is an amazing thing. He also loves the history of the sport and how it has shaped and changed cultures throughout history. Next I asked that if he or anyone he knows has participated in some form of soccer violence, and Krimson responded with a simple answer. He said that he has had a few teammates get into some fights during games, but other than that everything is usually pretty tame. I followed up by asking if those events had changed his outlook on the sport and its culture, and he answered no. He believes that violence is a part of the game and that it is just showing the immense passion that the players have when playing.
"...I think the violence is only because of their immense passion for the game."
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I got the initial questions out of the way, so it was now time to get to the more interesting questions. I asked Krimson what differences he saw between England and the United States when it came to soccer. I was pretty excited to hear his response since he is one of the few people I know who are from a foreign soccer playing nation. Krimson replied back by saying that soccer is definitely more popular in England than here, but that the way they play soccer is more “violent”. I asked him what he meant by “violent”, and he elaborated by saying he just means that their style of play is more physical and at a faster pace when compared to soccer in a country such as the U.S. After clearing that up, Krimson kept on going and even answered my next question without me even asking him it. He said that soccer is just perceived as more violent in England by the U.S because we have less passion for the game than they do. When I finally got to ask my last couple of questions, Krimson already had his answers ready to go. When asked how soccer violence is perceived in England, he said that he sees it as a common thing that occurs frequently so the people think nothing of it. However, when asked about how soccer violence is perceived in the United States, he said that most people believe it to be unruly, unnecessary, and violent. He thinks that the American people have no tolerance for such behavior, which is something I would have to agree with. I wrapped up the call by talking about school and the recent soccer matches that we had seen, and made plans to meet and hang out soon.
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