June 13, 2006
Still A Fan
Watching the US lose its World Cup opener 3-0 to the Czech Republic I am reminded that it takes a very special kind of fan to back the American soccer team. Unlike most countries, where rooting for your country in the World Cup is practically a birthright and civic duty, Americans have a wide range of sports to choose from, most of which their country dominates or is a regular contender for top spot.
Why watch soccer when you can watch basketball, baseball, track & field, swimming, snowboarding, hockey, ice skating, boxing or any number of other sports where we're used to seeing the Stars & Strips fly high above the field of opponents? And then there are all the sports we invented and only Americans seem to like: football (the other kind), stock car racing and most extreme sports. Fast, hard-hitting, edgy and overflowing with gratification for its fans. Bigger! Better! Faster! More! is how we like our sports.
Being an American soccer fan, it might seem to the uninitiated, is like being a fan of the national cricket team (do we even have one?) or closely following our country's fortunes in Olympic table tennis. Why? What special form of masochism would drive someone to pick an obscure sport we never win at when there are so many others to choose from?
Soccer is boring, too slow, too low-scoring, are the reasons Americans usually give for not liking the sport the rest of the world loves. But I don't think that's the real reason. Americans don't like soccer because Americans love to win and the US soccer team commits the cardinal sin of losing. If the US team were in the World Cup final overnight there would be 50 million newly-minted soccer fans. Look at the men's curling team and how quickly people were talking about brooms, hammers and hacks around the water cooler. Curling! Talk about an obscure sport. But they won the bronze medal. There's nothing like winning to win Americans over, is there? Does anybody remember the runner-ups to American Idol or The Apprentice two years ago? Who was Michael Dukakis anyway? The name sounds vaguely familiar...I think he might have played midfield with Bob Dole and Walter Mondale for D.C. United in the 1980s.
I like to watch the US soccer team because, besides the fact that I love the sport, it illuminates corners of the American character that are overshadowed by our love of winners and super stars. The US soccer team is the antithesis of the 1992 Men's Olympic Basketball Team, a.k.a. the Dream Team. The iconic image of the Dream Team for many people around the world was Charles Barkley shoving the hapless Lithuanian defender. It wasn't enough that we were the best in the world at basketball, we had to be arrogant about it too. This is the United States as superpower, a role that is wearing thin around the world.
By contrast, the US soccer team is...humble. Not a word you usually associate with American athletes. There are no Michael Jordans or Magic Johnsons or Larry Birds on this team. Or, to put it another way, the US soccer team does not have a Ronaldinho or a David Beckham or Francesco Totti. And not one of the players is a millionaire, or even anywhere close to being a millionaire. You won't be seeing any of these guys endorsing a major soft drink or automobile or sports sneaker any time soon.
I went to watch the US play El Salvador in a World Cup qualifier in San Salvador back in 1997. I was with a handful of other Americans and our enthusiastic cheering was barely audible over the shouts and cheers of the home squad. Still, after the game a group of players approached our section in the stands and waved their thanks John Harkes even threw us his Captain band at the request of my friend. From what I've heard, my experience was typical. These are players who stay close to their fans and are grateful for the attention.
These are guys that play because they love the game. They know, as Coach Bruce Arenas tirelessly repeats, that they will only win if they work as team. The Americans train hard: if they can't have the super stars they can at least have superior physical fitness. They believe that eleven men on a field that work as one can overcome a rival with super stars as they almost did in the heartbreaking 1-0 quarterfinal loss to soccer power Germany in the 2002 World Cup.
Hard working. Modest. Generous. Team-focused. That's the other America, the one so many people around the world respect. Most of the time when an American team or athlete competes internationally they are better paid, have better training equipment, better sponsorship, better technology. Soccer is one of the few endeavors left where America plays the role of the underdog. We have been Goliath so long it's nice to be reminded that we were once the little guy.
I have been a fan of US soccer since the 1990 World Cup in Italy when a band of outclassed college players took the field against bigger rivals, played their hearts out, and lost. The evolution from that team to the one that almost beat the Germans in 2002 has been a story of grit, determination, perseverance and optimism when there was no reason to be optimistic. A very American story. This is the America of The Alamo and the Doolittle Raid and the Apollo XIII mission, refusing to give up faced with impossible odds.
When the US soccer federation set out to rebuild the team for the 1994 it took the core group of players from the 1990 team and also began recruiting foreign players that had an American parent or some connection to the United States, and could be naturalized. These were players that didn't have a chance to make their national team and so donned the American jersey. These are the poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to play free to paraphrase Emma Lazarus.
Other countries import and naturalize players of course. Germany's biggest star, Miroslav Klose is Polish, or was anyway. And Team Italy for years has been known to recruit Argentine and Uruguayan players of Italian origin. And that's just it, most other countries import players of the same ethnic extraction or players from former colonies. The US is truly a team of immigrants, both recent immigrants and the children of immigrants. What stands out when the US plays in the World Cup is how homogenous the other teams are. We've got our Lewises and Johnsons and Popes playing for us, but we also have our Reynas and Bocanegras, our McBrides and O'Briens, our Mastroenis and Cherundolos, our Berhalters and Hahnemanns, our Chings and our Onyewus. The American soccer team reminds me of Herman Melville;s quote, "You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world."
Which is why eventually the US will accede to the ranks of soccer superpowers alongside Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy and even win the world cup. Soccer fans are by definition patient. You have to be to enjoy matches where a single goals marks the difference between joy and despair. And the future looks good for the patient fan, recent setbacks aside.
The best and the brightest have long come to our shores in search of opportunity. As America shades darker in the years to come and continuous to let in a stream of immigrants there will be young opportunistic athletes that decide to focus on soccer, the world's sport, and there will be a growing cadre fans, immigrant and native, to cheer them along. Already there is much excited talk about what Freddy Adu, the 17 year-old wunderkind immigrated from Ghana, might do for the Stars & Stripes at the next World Cup.
US soccer is where America was at in 1906, a land of immigrants awakening to its vast potential. And that's a good reason to cheer for the US team now, before the bandwagon really gets going. You can say, I was there when we were David facing Goliath. I believed even when it looked like there was no reason to believe.
Watching the US lose its World Cup opener 3-0 to the Czech Republic I am reminded that it takes a very special kind of fan to back the American soccer team. Unlike most countries, where rooting for your country in the World Cup is practically a birthright and civic duty, Americans have a wide range of sports to choose from, most of which their country dominates or is a regular contender for top spot.
Why watch soccer when you can watch basketball, baseball, track & field, swimming, snowboarding, hockey, ice skating, boxing or any number of other sports where we're used to seeing the Stars & Strips fly high above the field of opponents? And then there are all the sports we invented and only Americans seem to like: football (the other kind), stock car racing and most extreme sports. Fast, hard-hitting, edgy and overflowing with gratification for its fans. Bigger! Better! Faster! More! is how we like our sports.
Being an American soccer fan, it might seem to the uninitiated, is like being a fan of the national cricket team (do we even have one?) or closely following our country's fortunes in Olympic table tennis. Why? What special form of masochism would drive someone to pick an obscure sport we never win at when there are so many others to choose from?
Soccer is boring, too slow, too low-scoring, are the reasons Americans usually give for not liking the sport the rest of the world loves. But I don't think that's the real reason. Americans don't like soccer because Americans love to win and the US soccer team commits the cardinal sin of losing. If the US team were in the World Cup final overnight there would be 50 million newly-minted soccer fans. Look at the men's curling team and how quickly people were talking about brooms, hammers and hacks around the water cooler. Curling! Talk about an obscure sport. But they won the bronze medal. There's nothing like winning to win Americans over, is there? Does anybody remember the runner-ups to American Idol or The Apprentice two years ago? Who was Michael Dukakis anyway? The name sounds vaguely familiar...I think he might have played midfield with Bob Dole and Walter Mondale for D.C. United in the 1980s.
I like to watch the US soccer team because, besides the fact that I love the sport, it illuminates corners of the American character that are overshadowed by our love of winners and super stars. The US soccer team is the antithesis of the 1992 Men's Olympic Basketball Team, a.k.a. the Dream Team. The iconic image of the Dream Team for many people around the world was Charles Barkley shoving the hapless Lithuanian defender. It wasn't enough that we were the best in the world at basketball, we had to be arrogant about it too. This is the United States as superpower, a role that is wearing thin around the world.
By contrast, the US soccer team is...humble. Not a word you usually associate with American athletes. There are no Michael Jordans or Magic Johnsons or Larry Birds on this team. Or, to put it another way, the US soccer team does not have a Ronaldinho or a David Beckham or Francesco Totti. And not one of the players is a millionaire, or even anywhere close to being a millionaire. You won't be seeing any of these guys endorsing a major soft drink or automobile or sports sneaker any time soon.
I went to watch the US play El Salvador in a World Cup qualifier in San Salvador back in 1997. I was with a handful of other Americans and our enthusiastic cheering was barely audible over the shouts and cheers of the home squad. Still, after the game a group of players approached our section in the stands and waved their thanks John Harkes even threw us his Captain band at the request of my friend. From what I've heard, my experience was typical. These are players who stay close to their fans and are grateful for the attention.
These are guys that play because they love the game. They know, as Coach Bruce Arenas tirelessly repeats, that they will only win if they work as team. The Americans train hard: if they can't have the super stars they can at least have superior physical fitness. They believe that eleven men on a field that work as one can overcome a rival with super stars as they almost did in the heartbreaking 1-0 quarterfinal loss to soccer power Germany in the 2002 World Cup.
Hard working. Modest. Generous. Team-focused. That's the other America, the one so many people around the world respect. Most of the time when an American team or athlete competes internationally they are better paid, have better training equipment, better sponsorship, better technology. Soccer is one of the few endeavors left where America plays the role of the underdog. We have been Goliath so long it's nice to be reminded that we were once the little guy.
I have been a fan of US soccer since the 1990 World Cup in Italy when a band of outclassed college players took the field against bigger rivals, played their hearts out, and lost. The evolution from that team to the one that almost beat the Germans in 2002 has been a story of grit, determination, perseverance and optimism when there was no reason to be optimistic. A very American story. This is the America of The Alamo and the Doolittle Raid and the Apollo XIII mission, refusing to give up faced with impossible odds.
When the US soccer federation set out to rebuild the team for the 1994 it took the core group of players from the 1990 team and also began recruiting foreign players that had an American parent or some connection to the United States, and could be naturalized. These were players that didn't have a chance to make their national team and so donned the American jersey. These are the poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to play free to paraphrase Emma Lazarus.
Other countries import and naturalize players of course. Germany's biggest star, Miroslav Klose is Polish, or was anyway. And Team Italy for years has been known to recruit Argentine and Uruguayan players of Italian origin. And that's just it, most other countries import players of the same ethnic extraction or players from former colonies. The US is truly a team of immigrants, both recent immigrants and the children of immigrants. What stands out when the US plays in the World Cup is how homogenous the other teams are. We've got our Lewises and Johnsons and Popes playing for us, but we also have our Reynas and Bocanegras, our McBrides and O'Briens, our Mastroenis and Cherundolos, our Berhalters and Hahnemanns, our Chings and our Onyewus. The American soccer team reminds me of Herman Melville;s quote, "You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world."
Which is why eventually the US will accede to the ranks of soccer superpowers alongside Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy and even win the world cup. Soccer fans are by definition patient. You have to be to enjoy matches where a single goals marks the difference between joy and despair. And the future looks good for the patient fan, recent setbacks aside.
The best and the brightest have long come to our shores in search of opportunity. As America shades darker in the years to come and continuous to let in a stream of immigrants there will be young opportunistic athletes that decide to focus on soccer, the world's sport, and there will be a growing cadre fans, immigrant and native, to cheer them along. Already there is much excited talk about what Freddy Adu, the 17 year-old wunderkind immigrated from Ghana, might do for the Stars & Stripes at the next World Cup.
US soccer is where America was at in 1906, a land of immigrants awakening to its vast potential. And that's a good reason to cheer for the US team now, before the bandwagon really gets going. You can say, I was there when we were David facing Goliath. I believed even when it looked like there was no reason to believe.
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