hypotheticlee speaking

I was at a pub celebrating yesterday when the men’s US soccer team drew with England in a pretty good match. The fans were living and dying with each save and tackle as true soccer fans do the world over. So when the game ended in a draw, I thought, alright well, considering we were 1 goal underdogs, and we held our own, I’m content with that.

Espn’s John Kincade however does not share my sentiments. On his show this morning he went off on a tangent about how celebrating a draw “smacks of being European”. “Not in this country” he said and he quoted an unnamed source by saying, “there are no awards for just showing up”.

In the past I have liked his show but I do not understand his thick-headedness about this. “America’s about #1” he says, #1 what? It’s not the economy, it’s not education, and it’s certainly not going to be about soccer for quite sometime when our best players go to play in Europe.

The average European soccer fan knows the US team players better than 90% of America fans!

Is he channeling 1990’s cocky America? We ain’t so hot anymore if you haven’t looked around. I’m not bashing America, I’m just saying things change and I’m pretty sure we can’t justify having this mentality without the swagger to back it up.

He then went on to say that it’s ok since we beat England at their sport, with their “arrogant European sports fans”. Have you seen the VAST majority of European soccer fans? They aren’t so much the top hat wearing, monocle sporting stereotypes from the past, they are rough and dedicated and don’t care a lick what you think.

Winning is always the best but a draw can and should be celebrated. And soccer fans the world over are so much more into it then any other fans, of course the celebration of the outcome will be modified accordingly. A soccer win or loss sends fans into adrenaline filled bouts of celebration and depression. So why wouldn’t a draw’s emotion be amplified as well? It all depends on the matchup and in this case, I am fine with it.

Just because there are rarely if ever ties or draws in the top 6 American sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, College Football, College Basketball, Nascar), doesn’t mean they’re not worth anything. Someone’s living in the past here, and it’s time to either move forward or get out of the way.