Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Hydration breaks at the FIFA World Cup are greeted with loud boos due to perceived game disruption.
- Stadium DJs are seeking to counter the jeers with singalongs.
- It comes as fans' discontent grows, sparking "Americanization" complaints.
ATLANTA — There's a not-so-silent war being fought at World Cup games around the country.
The battleground? Hydration breaks. The weapon of choice? Karaoke.
The two mid-half pauses for hydration (and advertisements) have been met with increasingly loud boos from crowds who are frustrated at FIFA turning matches into de facto four-quarter affairs. And the best way to get them to stop booing is, apparently, to get them to start singing.
In the second half of Thursday's match between South Africa and the Czech Republic, the hydration break was met with a chorus of boos. It only took a few seconds for "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver to blast through the stadium speakers, turning those jeers into a 67,000-person singalong. A similar scene played out during Sunday's match between Spain and Saudi Arabia.
During England-Croatia in Dallas, it was The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" that was used to combat the boo birds. In Seattle, where the U.S.A. defeated Australia 2-0, it was a brass band that had the stands grooving rather than booing during the brief intermission. Back in Dallas when Argentina and Austria played in a Group J match, it was the 1993 super hit "Macarena" by Los del Río.
It's a move well in line with the beautiful game's traditional atmosphere, but a tactical bit of nous from the DJs at American stadiums who are pulling the strings.
Soccer, football in much of the world, has a long and wonderful tradition of singing, whether that be in praise of their favorite players, mocking opponents (sometimes, brutally so) or simply urging their team forward. The atmosphere in much of the world during a match is musical and vibrant.
It's a stark contrast to the American way of watching a live sporting event, which are largely driven by commands given to the crowd from the numerous screens in stadia around the country. Prompts to "Make some noise!" or demanding that "EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!" or the rhythmic pounding of drums to generate chants of "De-fense!" are the standard.
But a party atmosphere like the World Cup definitely lends itself to a full-throated singalong. From the pregame atmosphere in the bars, fan festivals, trains, shuttles and marches to the anthems to the postgame singalongs that have gone viral ("Wonderwall" for the English, "Country Roads" again for the U.S.A.), the sound of singing is being heard from coast to coast this summer.
And it's that mood upon which stadium DJs are capitalizing.
The hydration breaks in this World Cup have been polarizing, in that the poles are "kinda dislike" and "severely loathe." During their opening match against Croatia last week, England fans seemed to cross a metaphorical Rubicon by booing the hydration breaks and now the general discontent is spreading throughout the host cities as fans make their displeasure known.
Hydration breaks for warm-weather games have been around for a while now, but this World Cup has made them mandatory, even inside climate-controlled facilities like the ones in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and others. That's sparked complaints of Americanization of the games, essentially splitting the two 45-minute halves into four 22-and-a-half-minute quarters.
That is anathema to many of the visiting fans, and, to be very clear, the overwhelming majority of the American soccer fans who are in attendance as well. Once the English broke the dam, the boos now rain down on the pitch as the broadcast crews cut to commercial.
When the jeers fly, it's become a sort of parlor game to observe just how quickly the stadium DJ will hit play on a trusted singalong track to change the vibe in the stadium. It's rarely more than a couple seconds.
The gambit usually works. Karaoke might be a Japanese term, but the desire to sing at the top of one's lungs with thousands of strangers to a famous tune? That's universal.
