The Complicated Joy of Soccer

(P/C:Manuel Fasico)

This is ostensibly a platform for me to write about American soccer -- MLS and USL, and that's what I've used it for. To frame this differently, I've intentionally boundaried this space from the other topics I often write about: politics and religion. 

It seems, though, like the time has come to take down those walls, if only for a little while, to acknowledge that while the soccer is center stage during the World Cup, the world's game is equal parts relief from an unending barrage of socio-political upheaval as it is deeply enmeshed in that very same turbulence. 

That's not breaking news to anyone reading this, but it does warrant saying out loud. 

I, like many others following this tournament, have chosen to use my social media platforms to comment almost exclusively on the games (matches) themselves. 

For me, this has been a very intentional choice –– opening the door, even just slightly ajar, to the abyss that is everything besides the games felt as though I'd never be able to watch with any joy at all. 

That was the wrong choice. 

The tournament itself has been perhaps the best World Cup in modern memory –– a hypothesis underscored by today's stunning Belgian counter attack for the ages. But while Lukaku was somehow in a state of mind to let a lifetime of glory roll between his legs (certainly the most glorious "dummy" I've ever seen), my mind was drifting to a world fraught with war, hunger, isolation and desolation. 

As Chadli formalized the most famous six touches in Belgian footballing history I  could only think: damn you, Vladimir. 

Not only is your side through to the quarterfinals amid doping rumors, you're playing host to an unimaginably good sporting event. One that will be remembered forever alongside your thuggery, murder, and hijacking of history. 

While this isn't the first World Cup to be played under the smoke of a burning world, it is the first one since 1934 that's been so intertwined with it –– FIFA's now exposed corruption fully welcomed in Putin's Moscow. 

It's all so inescapable. 

I've been challenged by the reporting of Clint Smith, Laurent Dubois, and Karim Zidan as well as few others during the course of this tournament to see the whole, complex, story unfolding before us. That while we enjoy the sport we can––and must––engage with the world that remains lest our temporary joy be the tyrant's permission.

Landon Donavan, El Tri, and US Soccer's never ending issues

In the absence of actual World Cup games featuring the United States Men's National Team,  #USMNT twitter went off the rails today when Well's Fargo launched a social media ad campaign featuring Landon Donovan utilizing #MyOtherTeamisMexico.

Donavan, predictably, was on the receiving end of immediate backlash from fans and former national team players alike -- most notably Carlos Bocanegera and Herculez Gomez.

This is an incredibly terrible take. Questioning ones loyalties to culture and/or heritage because HE questioned YOU for taking marketing dollars to “root” for your SPORTING RIVAL?

You can hate El Tri- this doesn’t mean you have anything against Mexicans. ✊🏼 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 https://t.co/xF9JCI1qBC

— herculez gomez (@herculezg) June 16, 2018

Behind the social media fiasco--which takes on additional meaning given our socio-political moment--is something worth talking about, though.

There's a real tension and, frankly, ignorance around the multicultural identity of the men's national team. Wells Fargo's ad is based in the assumption that there's significant overlap between soccer fans living in the United States, but of Mexican citizenship or descent.

As a brand, Wells Fargo clearly preferred to build an ad campaign around an American team in the World Cup but weren't willing to be sidelined during the month long tournament once the USMNT failed to qualify.

The strategy was basically to put the core elements of their ideal campaign into a blender. What came out was the most iconic player in American history pimping a corporate sponsorship by endorsing America's biggest soccer rival. (Of course it's even more layered than that given Donavan's exit from the national team.)

As dumb as all this sounds, it's basically the same approach major stake holders--including U.S. Soccer--have taken over the last two-plus decades in an attempt to "grow the game" in America, and the results have been similar.

Paying lip-service to the "emerging Latino market" has landed America's soccer gatekeepers in trouble before.

Perhaps the most obvious example is the Chivas U.S.A debacle, but there are others more specific to the national team. Just look to the youth development foibles of the late. (I wrote about the Jonathan Gonzales situation on this blog.) Or at the tension around Klinsmann preferencing German-American players.

These are the direct result of cultural incompetency -- a misunderstanding of how complex the mixture of sport, culture and identity are.

My point tonight isn't to write in-depth about each and every instance of cultural incompetency, nor is it even to delve into solutions. It's simply to say: these aren't just gaffes to paper over.  This is difficult stuff that should occupy both America's soccer intelligentsia and it's executives.