I like the old adage "the best is yet to come." It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, like, something new, exciting and better is around the corner and the anticipation towards that event can be easily cut with a knife.
What's better is that 2009 is almost over and I feel the good times are just starting for soccer in America. My nascent league is developing nicely, sheathed in the hopes and dreams of true fans across the nation.
After reading a nice little article in the Huffington Post about soccer in 2009, however, I just got this weird feeling; it was as if my gut was telling me that I should reject something foul I ate. Problem was I hadn't eaten in hours and all I was doing was looking at soccer blogs during class.
It eventually dawned on me that what I was reading was 'soccer has arrived,' or more eloquently, 'soccer is ruined for me.'
As Gude explains, 2009 is the year that soccer finally arrives in America. To argue with him would be futile- his writing makes perfect sense. Sponsorship is up, TV deals are higher than ever and the U.S. National Team qualified for the World Cup on one of the most wonderful plays in recent memory. Yes, it certainly does seem that soccer is making it.
While I am certainly proud of the fact that America is finally embracing the fairer sport, I have hesitations. I mean, growing up loving soccer has always meant fighting for it, tooth and nail, through thick and thin, with hopes that you might just convince one friend to sit down and watch a game with you in between his busy college football viewing schedule. Without the idea that soccer is not mainstream literally hurts my head, making me think of all the ways that I can come to actually dislike a sport I grew up with.
Ugly fans that show up and shout at players non-stop, ogling the cheerleaders that some MLS franchises utilize, shouting obscenities more than the supporters sections do. Disgusting people wearing jerseys around town, thinking that they are cool because they are supporting the new fad that has come into America. Ugh I feel sick.
What happens if frat boys start coming to games, bonging beers and hitting on women at games rather than watch them? Or if mom and dad start showing up because the thing their son has loved for so long starts to interest them? That would probably be the death of me.
Sometimes I think of what could happen if soccer actually caught on here. Sure it would be nice to go to a match with 40,000 screaming fans, and I am sure that the talent pool would grow leading to American successes all over Europe and abroad. But what if I start liking the sport more because other people do also? Am I a hypocrite of my own devices? Can't I just take the sport for what it is in its current state and just love it?
I can't do this. I won't let America accept soccer- not yet. I'm not ready to lose this thing that seems so delicate, so new and innocent, depraved of the molestations of modern sports fans with their painted faces and ridiculous costumes (Yes I am looking at you, person who dressed up as a banana for a sporting event just to get on T.V. You are dumb, and you are not touching my soccer).
So no, Huffington Post, I cannot absorb your claim of mainstream soccer, nor will I acknowledge your factually based article. I will just crawl in my hole for a little while longer, writing responses with tears in my eyes on blogs across the interwebs, crying out that soccer is not accepted by Americans. Oh no, not yet.
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