US Loses

On Saturday the U.S. national team lost in the World Cup. It was a good game and Ghana deserves to be proud. They played well.

I was in Essaouira, on the Moroccan coast, for a festival of traditional Moroccan music called Gnawa.

We found a place in a restaurant overlooking the beach. A group of Americans, who it turned out later were all Fulbright scholars doing research in Morocco, sat in front of us. To our side a group of three Moroccans rooted mercilessly for Ghana.

We argued about a few calls. Sometimes we agreed on how bad the refs were, but it was mostly antagonistic.

When the result became clear, I stood up and shook their hands. I told them Ghana played well and deserved to win. I wished the last remaining African team the best of luck in this African World Cup. Then we paid and left the restaurant.

I didn't want to be an ugly American.

As we headed out to the next Gnawa concert, I received a text message from my Arabic tutor.

It read, "What i really like in the American team is that it keeps playing till the last second of the match even if they are defeat with 10! they never waiver."