Von+Trapps

The official Men In Blazers nickname for the U.S. Men's National Team.

Winner of a nicknaming contest announced [|October 20, 2011](49:00) and based on characters in [|The Sound of Music].

Contest winner @FerrisOnline wrote:

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ESPN commissioned [|World Cup 2014 posters] for each team, but they made the mistake of referring to them at [|The Yanks]. Mistake corrected, courtesy of the [|1972 Ravens].



On 23 OCT 2013 @JoshDeaver tried to update the [|official Wikipedia entry for the U.S. National Team] to reflect a full list on nicknames, included "The Von Trapps." media type="custom" key="24631466" Unfortunately, an anonymous user repeatedly deleted the submission. media type="custom" key="24631460"

Prior to the 2014 World Cup, GFOP Tyler DeBoer updated Joel Erkkinen's original work above to include only players going to Brazil.



In November 2011, Roger joked about commissioning a series of songs to be sung by Men in Blazers & USMNT supporters that were parodies of those heard in The Sound of Music (see 11/19/2011 pod, at 20:30). He promised to save the submissions "for the next international break when we'll debut a few more of the USMNT songs we've accumulated from listeners" ([|personal communication]). The only submission publicly revealed has been "[|How Do You Score A Goal Against Tim Howard?]" by GFOP Greg Pool. Then in May 2014 came GFOP Craig Copeland's "[|Favorite Things]" from the "Search for a Song for the USMNT for Brazil 2014" contest.

[|A May 30, 2014 article in the Baltimore Sun] details the Von Trapps origin with the admission:

Bennett and Davies refer to the U.S. Men’s National Team as the Von Trapps, and though they admitted in a recent Grantland video they have no idea why, it appears to stem from a tweet after coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s appointment in July 2011.