A recent American newspaper headline declared that the USA football team had won 1-1 against Britain.

Granted, they may well have been searching for humour in ignoring the fact that the result was a draw.

One does have to comment, however, on the fact that they thought our team was called Britain and not England.

It is reminiscent of the time a stateside journal wrote about the soccer club Sheffield Midweek when referring to Sheffield Wednesday. Attention to detail seems to be lacking at such times.

It seems that the USA is divided on the merits of our national sport. ESPN, the station bringing the World Cup to the North American public, has led with the idea that soccer must be an exciting sport because the rest of the world play and love it.

Rival station NBC has come out fighting by suggesting that the game holds nothing to get excited about, even going as far as suggesting that it is not quite American.

Their argument consists of two main points; firstly, the fact that everyone else does it is not a reason to join in. Secondly, the game is boring because it doesn’t have enough goals and can end in a draw.

I am not sure whether many of NBC’s advertisers would share the sentiment that something should be ignored because thousands of other people do it.

As for needing a sport to have multiple goals in order for it to be enjoyable, this displays a certain devaluing of the place of nuance in life.

Nuance means that people continue to play sport even though they are not the best participants. It means that people engage in hobbies just for the fun of it. If life was merely about the perception of success, there would be so much that we would miss out on.

For sure, English football fans would have stopped buying St George’s flags several decades ago. But we haven’t, and I will tell you why.

Life is far more subtle than we are often led to believe. The headline might say that there is a credit crunch, but still thousands of people get up every day and enjoy life. They enjoy the simple things that make it all worthwhile.

Football fans love the way the game builds towards the possibility of a goal being scored. They cheer when a defender stops a cross reaching the head of an attacking player. They applaud the way a striker times his run to beat the off side trap. All of this is nuance and I love it.

Apparently, so does the rest of the world. Except, that is, the USA, or at least the television company that isn’t showing the World Cup.