{"id":101131,"date":"2016-07-13T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101131"},"modified":"2019-06-21T12:18:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T20:18:01","slug":"the-dark-side-of-american-soccer-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101131","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Side of American Soccer Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nThe spread of Europhilic American soccer culture excludes much of the population of American soccer fans, a healthy portion of whom are Latin American immigrants. When the Mexican national team toured the United States last year, it drew in an average of 59,000 fans, roughly two-thirds more than the crowds that watch the United States men\u2019s national team. Broadcasts of Liga MX, the top club league in Mexico, regularly dwarf the ratings of Major League Soccer and the English Premier League. And yet, for the most part, M.L.S., the United States Soccer Federation and even the apparel and sports-drink companies that market to American soccer youth have drawn a line between whose attention is worth pursuing and whose is not.<\/p>\n

There are now two separate American soccer cultures: one white, the other Latino. And while some of the Europhilia can be attributed to the relative newness of American soccer fandom (traditions, I suppose, have to start somewhere), it\u2019s worth asking why soccer fans in a country with millions of immigrants from soccer-crazed countries in Central and South America would look so longingly toward Western Europe, or why the American media\u2019s coverage of soccer culture, however scant, focuses on soccer bars in gentrified Brooklyn and fan organizations in majority-white cities like Portland, Ore., and Seattle.<\/p>\n

This divide has limited the appeal and growth of the sport in the States. In the broadcast before the quarterfinal match in the Copa Am\u00e9rica soccer tournament between Mexico and Chile in June, Alexi Lalas, the former U.S.M.N.T. defender who turned shaggy red hair and a thick goatee into a personal branding moment in the 1994 World Cup, talked disapprovingly about the crowds of Mexican-American fans who had shown up at sites across the country to root for El Tri, Mexico\u2019s men\u2019s national team. Lalas explained that while his ancestry was Greek, if the United States played Greece in anything, there would be no question that his allegiance would lie with the red, white and blue. \u201cThere\u2019s only one national team,\u201d Lalas said.<\/p>\n

If Alexi Lalas wants to know why so many Mexican-Americans choose not to root for the United States, he doesn\u2019t need to look much farther than the crowds who gather in M.L.S. stadiums and bars and sing songs inspired by groups who shove black men off subway trains and travel to foreign cities to taunt Muslim immigrants. There is nothing wrong about borrowing what you love, but it should be called what it is \u2014 a dream of an ultimately monochromatic gathering in which thousands of white men can brawl (but safely and without guns!) in the streets and drunkenly sing Phil Collins melodies in pubs, lending a hooligan snarl to a white, suburban culture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

COMMENTS AT STEVE SAILER<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* So with this article, it looks like the anti-White Eye of Sauros has officially cast its gaze on the rapidly gentrifying Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

As rents double or quadruple here in Portland every year, government officials are desperate to stop or reverse the city\u2019s despicable Whitening by seeking to set aside sections of housing specifically for non-White people \u2014 they have openly called for this! But, much to their horror, this is ILLEGAL, so the handwringing continues unabated as Portland gets Whiter literally by the hour and blacks are forced to the hinterlands of shamefully unfashionable Gresham, Beaverton, Tigard, Milwaukie, and Salem.<\/p>\n

I heart Portland!<\/p>\n

* Don\u2019t millions of soccer fans in Latin America also look \u201clongingly\u201d to Western Europe? Does the name Real Madrid ring a bell for this author?<\/p>\n

With soccer\u2019s roots in Europe and elite professional teams there drawing players from around the world, it\u2019d be very strange if American soccer fans didn\u2019t emulate European soccer customs before those of say, the Guatemalan farm leagues. And even Guatemalans, are likely to esteem FC Barcelona more highly than local teams; prestige brings influence. For example, do European basketball fans care at all about the culture of the NBA beyond just learning the official rules of the game? Or, are American Taekwondo enthusiasts interested in any aspects of Korean martial arts beyond the dojang?<\/p>\n

When I was in Mexico a few years ago, there was a soccer match between the US and Mexican teams in the regional city I was visiting \u2013Mexico won. After the game, I was out walking and saw several cars and pickup trucks driving around with groups of young men and women hanging out of them, blasting horns, and chanting songs and slogans. As they\u2019d pass me, they\u2019d honk several times, pointing and shouting \u00a1Gringo! \u00a1Gringo! It wasn\u2019t my favorite experience there and such behavior could be seen as rude and a little threatening: but then again it was only some people and it wasn\u2019t like they were physically attacking anyone, unlike truly authentic E\u0336u\u0336r\u0336o\u0336p\u0336e\u0336a\u0336n\u0336 \u0336 English hooligans. Apparently, what I experienced is a fairly common part of Mexican soccer culture \u2013OK, but why would the NYT really think that that sort of thing is much better than what they\u2019re now doing in Seattle?<\/p>\n

* If you\u2019re old enough, you\u2019ve been told that soccer is the \u201cnext big thing\u201d for 50 years, beginning when the NY Cosmos brought in Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer in the mid-Seventies.<\/p>\n

* About Kang, I truly think he is a malignant creep, and yes, dangerous. He is interested in a fellow Korean who became a maniacal mass murderer, and wrote in his vicious troll baseball column (published in the NY Times, not some online rag) \u201cAs I grew older, and started feeling alienated from my white classmates\u2026\u201d When I first read that sentence, it chilled me to my guts. He wrote it *after* a racial confederate committed a mass murder, arising from racial alienation. Could a white man write the same? The question answers itself.<\/p>\n

* Far be it from me to defend any Seattle hipsters, but if the Texas MLS teams are any indication, there really isn\u2019t much of a Mexican soccer culture to emulate.<\/p>\n

A fat guy banging endlessly on a drum while a handful of people drone on and on isn\u2019t all that inspiring. And throwing bags of urine on opponents is frowned upon in MLS stadia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that the most successful (in attendance) MLS teams reside in primarily white enclaves like Seattle, Portland, Toronto, Vancouver, etc. It\u2019s a struggle to attract both Hispanic and white suburban fans, because catering to one freezes out the other. Just another benefit of diversity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Times: The spread of Europhilic American soccer culture excludes much of the population of American soccer fans, a healthy portion of whom are Latin American immigrants. When the Mexican national team toured the United States last year, it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21791,29731],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-soccer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t